[49] Report of the State Entomologist. 191 



in the season of its making its appearance from the pupa, for in three 

 consecutive years it occurred on the third and fifth of July. The moths 

 escape from the cocoons quite early in the morning. The males take 

 wing and seek their mates from about 9.30 to 10.30 a. m. The mating 

 ordinarily continues for three hours, although sometimes prolonged 

 until the evening. The female begins to fly and deposit her eggs 

 between 8.30 and 9 in the evening, placing them singly (in confine- 

 ment), or more rarely in groups of four to eight. Abroad, seldom 

 more than two eggs are placed on a leaf. 



Habits of flight. — " Pithecium is the only Limacodes known tome 

 which seeks its mate in broad daylight and bright sunshine. If the 

 day is rainy the male will not fly. I do not know whether the great 

 difference between the sexes has been noticed by observers, or the 

 very strong resemblance that the male presents to a blue-bottle 

 fly. When on the wing seeking its mate, its steel-blue abdomen and 

 semi-transparent wings, together with the buzzing noise that it makes, 

 would almost lead anyone to take .it for a ' blue-bottle ' unless 

 acquainted with its habits. On warm and bright days the males will 

 at times be seen swarming, to the number of fifteen or twenty, about 

 the cage of a newly emerged female placed out of doors, coming sud- 

 denly, circling and buzzing around it, and as suddenly darting away 

 with a swiftness that the eye can not follow." 



To the above notes of Miss Morton, I would add : The eggs of P. 

 pithecium (some of last year that failed to develop their larvae were 

 kindly sent to me) are the most remarkable looking objects of all the 

 insect eggs that I have ever seen. Certainly no one unacquainted 

 with them and meeting with them abroad, and not seeing them 

 deposited by the moth (perhaps not even then) would suspect their 

 nature. They are simply minute, flattened discs, showing no elevation 

 as viewed from above, but only a slight circular depression within. 

 When examined obliquely or against the light, the depressed line is 

 seen to define the outline of the young larva curved so that the head 

 and tail nearly touch, and occupying about one-half of the diameter 

 of the egg. The greatest thickness of the egg is about one-half that 

 of the thin sheet of paper to which they are attached. In size they 

 hardly exceed an ordinary "fly-speck," measuring in the longest 

 diameter 0.075 of an inch. Their color is a pale yellow-brown. 

 Certainly, the egg is as peculiar, extraordinary, and as ludicrous as 

 is the larva. 



The statement of Miss Morton that the cocoons of pithecium are 

 made the last of September or even in October is confirmatory of the 



