Packard.] 
484 
[Feb. 19, 
her progeny shall find themselves exactly where their food is most 
suitable, for however much they may wander at first, it is there, in 
preference to any other part, the young larvse invariably begin to 
feed on the cuticle of the upper surface ; there also they spin a small 
quantity of silk, on which to rest, and be secure while moulting.” 
The egg is “ roundish-oval, the surface very finely pitted.” 
The same author states that Drepana hamula 1 laid a dozen eggs 
“ on the edges of leaves of oak, here and there one on the very edge 
of a leaf.” The egg of this species is “ oval with a depression on its 
upper surface and ribbed longitudinally.” My descriptions and 
studies have been made on both living and alcoholic specimens, the 
colors and general form being described from life. 
The egg. — Length, 8 mm. Regularly oval, cylindrical, rounded 
alike at each end ; the shell very thin and transparent, the surface 
slightly granulated and divided into minute flattened, faintly marked 
polygonal areas. Some of the eggs are flattened, and possibly they 
are generally so. 
First stage . — Hatched June 17. Length 2 mm. Head moder- 
ately large, a little wider than the body, smooth and rounded, shin- 
ing black, with long scattered hairs. The body is nearly of the same 
width to and including the eighth abdominal segment ; the ninth seg- 
ment is nearly as large as the eighth, while the tenth is somewhat 
conical, unusually well developed, the suture between it and the 
ninth being unusually distinct ; it ends in a long large spine, and the 
anal legs are obsolete, being represented by small, short, low, obtuse 
tubercles which hardly project from the segment. The last three 
segments form a “tail” which is somewhat elevated, the spine being 
decidedly upturned while the larva walks. The great posterior devel- 
opment of the supra-anal, or suranal, plate is unique so far as I am 
aware ; that of Cerura is unusually long and narrow, but its poste- 
rior end is rounded and obtuse and presents but a slight approach to 
that of the Platyptericidse. The spine is flattened from above down- 
wards and is about half as long as the ninth segment is broad ; it is 
bifid at the end, each short fork bearing a forked glandular hair or 
bristle a little longer than the spine itself. 
On the front of each segment is a transverse ridge made rough 
by piliferous warts, those on the second and third segments being a 
little larger than the others on the body. 
iThe European Drepana hamula belongs to Dryopteris, and its larva in its structure 
is congeneric with the American D. rosea. 
