8 BULLETIN 1076, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
weaken and allow the leaf disks to drop to the surface of the water — 
(Pl. 1, A), where they soon yellow, decay, and sink. When these ma- 
ture floating leaves were examined it was found that in the center of 
the disk, directly above the petiole attachment, a large number of 
the leaves had a round opening leading to a cavity in the upper end 
of the petiole (Pl. IV, B, C). This cavity was shallow, seldom ex- 
tending more than 2 centimeters into the petiole, and usually just long 
enough to accommodate the larva and its cocoon. The entrance was 
often surrounded and covered by a mound of soft brown frass pellets 
(Pl. TILT, C), and frequently the surface tissue of the leaf in an irreg- 
ular area about it was scarred and eaten as if the larva after construct- 
ing the cavity possessed still an appetite which it satisfied with the 
nearest food at hand. 
In the case of the prepupal larve or pupe the cavity in the petiole 
is lined with a substantial white silk fabric, densest at the upper end 
(PL IV,B). The entrance is closed with a very accurately cut whitish 
lenticular disk of plant tissue which fits closely and is sealed in with 
silk. This disk hes usually a little below the level of the leaf surface 
and is concealed by the frass until the latter is washed away or other- 
wise removed. This position of the pupal cavity, in the floating leaves 
only, brings it below the water level. 
Welch (14, p. 219-221) has well described the construction of this 
pupal chamber and the feeding in connection therewith, and the be- 
havior of the insects was found here to correspond closely with his 
account. It is noteworthy, however, that in Lake Erie, where his 
observations were made, the lotus leaves are always floating and not 
held above the water, and their centers are higher than the periphery, 
while at Kimberlin Heights the leaves are held 15 to 30 inches above 
the water and are cupped with the margins higher than the centers, 
so that they often catch rain or dew to the amount of several cubic 
centimeters and hold it until it evaporates or is spilled by the sway- 
ing of the leaves in the wind. The insect evidently prefers to con- 
struct its cocoon in an aquatic situation and so seeks the old floating 
leaves at the approach of maturity. Never were young or partly 
grown larve found in the petioles, only those nearly mature and 
probably in the last instar. Neither are the young and erect leaves 
attacked in this way; only the old, floating ones. 
HABITS OF THE MOTHS. 
The only moths seen in the open were the few found in and near 
the lotus plantation. Several of them were captured and found to 
be predominantly males. Their flight was rapid and erratic, and 
they were wary and not easily approached. They came to rest 
usually on the lower side of a lotus leaf and often flew among the 
petioles and beneath the canopy formed by the leaves 2 or 3 feet 
