LEPIDOPTEROUS LARVÆ FIGHTING; AND TENACITY OF LIFE IN LARVA OF CLISIOCAMPA SILVATICA

Extract

On returning from a collecting tour, one day in last June, I emptied my larvæ box, putting in a collar box for a short time a larvæ of C. Silvatica, one of the Geometrid and one other Lepidopterous larva: the two last I could not identify, but they were all, Lepidopterous, I did not open the box until three or four hours afterwards, when I found a decided change in the appearance of my larvæ, The C. Silvatica larva was bitten entirely apart, the head and three first segments being in one piece, the three last abdominal segments in another; the remaining segments were in an indistinguishable mass on the bottom of the box. The geometrid larva was in almost as bad condition, but was not bitten apart; the third was uninjured.