BIOLOGY OF THE LOTUS BORER. 5 
winter quarters in the fall until the young larve of the first generation 
appear on the leaves in June is unknown, and the outline here given 
for that period is hypothetical. 
FEEDING HABITS ON THE LEAVES 
After hatching, the larve feed gregariously for a time, gnawing 
off the epidermis of the leaf in irregular patches, first protecting 
themselves with a shielding network of brownish silk stretched 
across some slight concavity of the leaf or producing such a concav- 
ity by its tension. They soon scatter, each forming a similar retreat 
of its own (PI. II, F), either in the center of the leaf above the peti- 
ole attachment or around the margin where the edge is easily drawn 
up a little to form the necessary free space beneath the web (PI. III, 
A, B). Less often a larva locates on the blade between the center 
and the margin. Protected and partially screened by the webs, the 
larvee strip the epidermis from the leaf, those at the center in a 
more or less radiate pattern and those at the margin following the 
periphery. They extend their retreat as they exhaust the food sup- 
ply and occasionally prolong the feeding area irregularly inward 
toward the disk of the leaf. At no stage is the entire substance of 
the leaf eaten. The areas from which the epidermis is stripped soon 
turn brown, dry, and fall out, leaving the leaf lacelike along the 
margin (Pl. IIT, D) and sbelerlly tattered in appearance. 
Although at Kimberlin ents no larvee were observed in the 
act, it is evident that they moved about from leaf to leaf and from 
one portion of a leaf to another. Small feeding webs were often 
found uninhabited, and tiny larve were found in retreats evidently 
occupied previously by much larger ones. Where several larve oc- 
curred on one leaf the retreats often overlapped around the margin, 
giving the effect of a large retreat occupied by several larve. No 
evidence was found of the larve swimming from one leaf to an- 
other as was observed by Welch in Lake Erie. The leaves were in 
almost every case contiguous to each other, especially when swayed 
by the breeze, and no need for such a means of locomotion was ap- 
parent. Then, too, the old floating leaves, loose from their petioles, 
_ drifted back and forth across the pond before the wind and, work- 
ing in among the standing leaves, formed pontoon bridges between 
the petioles. (Pl. I, A.) 
One exceptional instance was observed in which a leaf standing 
somewhat by itself but not especially isolated was found with a 
series of six holes in the petiole between the blade and water, each 
of which opened into a short cavity containing a fully mature 
larva evidently preparing to pupate. Not another larva was found 
in such a location, and this case can only be explained on the ground 
