18 



ing all stages of M. chalcedon^ with M. pJmeton colonizing on the same plant, so that the 

 habits of the two species could be compared. 



Mr. Edwards has also raised Lycaena melissa from egg to chrysalis, and finds that 

 the larva in the last stages has similar organs to those of Fseudargiolus on the tenth and 

 eleventh segments, and that ants are attracted in the same way by the sweet fluid they 

 exude. Over 100 eggs of Parnassius, either smintheus or something close to it, have 

 been obtained from West Montana. As to butterflies, the author stated that he had 

 never seen them scarcer than during the past year. An interesting discussion followed 

 this paper, in which several members took part. 



Prof. Riley off'ered some Notes on Fcedisca Scudderiana" and exhibited plants of 

 Solidago containing the larvae of this species, and made some remarks on its habits which 

 went to reconcile the published conclusions and differences between himself and Dr. 

 Kellicott, and to show that while the insect is commonly a gall maker, it was also, 

 exceptionally, an inquiline. The specimens showed that the habits of the insect were 

 variable, and the larva was either a leaf-crumpler, living in a bunch of curled terminal 

 leaves held together by a silken gallery, a stem-borer, without causing any swelling, or 

 the maker of a more or less perfect gall. He had also found it as an inquiline in the 

 gall of Gelechia gallcesolidaginis, the gall of which was always distinguishable from that 

 of the P£edisca ; among other things by the burrow of the larva always being traceable 

 from the blighted tip of the plant, whereas the Psedisca larva lived at first in the tip, and 

 bored in at the side. Mr. Kellicott's observations were accurate so far as they went, but 

 did not take into account the variation in habit. Mr. Kiley had watched these larval 

 habits during the present year from the time of hatching, and had concluded that the 

 insect combined, in varying degree, the four characteristics of gall-maker, leaf-crumpler, 

 stem-borer, and inquiline. The larvae living in the crumpled leaves later in the season had 

 not been reared to the imago, but he had made comparisons of the young larvae and 

 found that they were exactly alike, but they showed considerable modification as they 

 developed, especially after the last moult. Several other micro-lepidopterous larvae bored 

 in the stems and lived among the leaves of Solidago ; while another species, yet unbred, 

 made a gall similar to that of Psedisca ; but all the other larvae known to him were easily 

 distinguished from Paedisca. 



Mr. D. S. Kellicott said he felt sure his observations as reported in the paper referred 

 to were correct, and he was glad to know that both his own conclusions and those of Mr. 

 Kiley could be thus harmonized. It would seem he had not carried his observations far 

 enough to discover that all the larvae of Scudderiana fed at first in the terminal leaves. 

 Late in the fall he had often taken from the terminal leaves the mature larvae referred to 

 by Mr. Riley, but had so far failed to obtain the imago from them. He had some doubt 

 still of its being identical with P. Scudderiana. 



Prof. Riley also called attention to the life habits of Helia americalis^ which he 

 finds in the larval state to feed in the nests of Formica rufa. So far as he knows, this 

 is the first lepidopterous insect known to develop in ants' nests. He also gave his 

 experience in rearing Arsame obliquata during the past two years, and exhibited speci- 

 mens in difierent stages of development. The eggs are laid in curious broadly conical 

 or plano-convex masses enveloped in hair, and a cream coloured mucous secretion, which 

 combined look much like spun silk on the inside, and on the outside like the glazed exuda- 

 tion of Orgyia leucostigma. The larva, which is pale at first, but dark in its later stages, 

 bores into the stems of Saggittaria and Nelumbium, and is semi-aquatic, the last pair of 

 spiracles being exceptionally large and dorsal. There are two annual broods, the second 

 hybemating as larvae in moss and decaying stumps near the water. The moth shows 

 great variation, and the summer brood is on the average not much more than half as large 

 as the spring or hibernated generation, and generally much paler. 



Mr. D. S. Kellicott said that he had bred this moth at Buffalo, N.Y., where it was 

 very abundant, and he had found it associated with another species, an account of which 

 he promised to give at some future session. 



The meeting then adjourned to meet at 2 p.m.. the following day. 



