105 



Fig. 18.— Copidryas 

 GLOVERi. Cocoon 

 inclosing pupa, 

 natural size. 



The foUowiDg facts concerniDg' the life history of the species are con 

 deused from our own notes and Prof. PopenoeV^ i:>aper : 

 The eggs (fig. 16) are laid on the under side of the purs- 

 lane leaf, either singly or in clusters of from two to five. 

 The larva hatches in two or three days (fig. 17 young 

 larva), and is at first light green or yellowish green with 

 darker shading across the middle of the body. In eight 

 or nine days it attains full growth after having passed 

 through four molts. The full-grown larva (fig. 20, b) is 

 light gray or dull white with black dashes on the sides 

 of each segment, and with the shadings of salmon pink. 

 The full-grown larvae enter the ground for pupation, 

 excavating a tubular burrow in the surface soil, gum- 

 ming the lining and closing the opening with a thin layer 

 of particles of soil (fig. 18). The pupa is shown at fig. 

 19 with the head and anal extremities enlarged. The 

 insect remains in this state in the neighborhood of twelve days. The 

 moth is shown at fig. 20, a, and the colors of the front wings are brownish- 

 gray, with a creamy white streak, those of the hind 



r^- \^^ wings buff with a blackish margin. 



' Four generations were traced by Professor Popenoe, 



but he does not report upon the method of hibernation. 

 Glover figures the female in his plate 85, fig. 34, and 

 states that it was the only specimen in a small col- 

 lection by Dr. Lincecum, of Texas. This formed the 

 type of the species, and the male was then unknown. 

 There is little danger that this insect will ever trans- 

 fer its atten- 

 tions to any 

 cultivated 

 crop, although the cultivated 

 Portulaca grandiflora may 

 suffer in the future. The in- 

 sect may be looked upon rather 

 as beneficial, in that it de 

 stroys the noxious " Pussley,^ 

 the supposed evil qualities of 

 which Charles Dudley War- 

 ner has made so celebrated in 

 his "My Summer in a Gar- 

 den." Purslane is, however, 

 not looked upon by our West- 

 ern farmers as a particularly 

 noxious weed, and following 

 the locust ravages of 1875 it proved almost a godsend by its rapid de- 

 velopment and value both as food for hogs and as a green manure when 

 plowed under. 



Fig. 19.— Copidryas 

 GLOVERI. Pupa, -with 

 liead and anal ex- 

 tremities enlarged. 



FIG. 20.— Copidryas gloveri. a, adult; b, full-grown 

 larva, natural size (original). 



