NOTES ON LARVÆ, ETC

Extract

Last summer, near the end of July, in skirmishing through a wood overgrown with White Snake-root weeds, I struck a large find of the Callimorpha interrupto-marginata moths, and collected some 50 specimens. Others collected as many more. The weeds were covered with their larvæ, of a bright yellow color, with a white lateral stripe, mottled along its upper edge with bright red, the anal end being also faced with red markings. The length about 1½inches. I collected altogether some 200 of them, but utterly failed to bring one to pupa. As they stopped feeding they were taken with a white scouring, leaving nothing but empty skins. Others tried them with like result. The bushes were also strung with their dead bodies. Still some must have escaped, as the brood this year was just as large. But the larvæ failed again to pupate. I think the fault is in the food plant, as cattle will not touch it, and such as are knocked off may take to other food and escape. Cannot some of your correspondents explain this?