Article beginning on page 363.
Psyche 3:363, 1880.

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PSYCHE.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF SONIFACTION 'IN INSECTS.
BY OSKAR PAUL KRANCHER, LEIPZIG, GERMANY. In my rearing of Saturn ia pyri, this
year (1882), I had the pleasure of making an observation which was entirely new to me and which, in my opinion, the literature of the subject, up to the present time, does not mention. It was that after the larvae of the above-mentioned moth had passed
their last molt,- the molt in which the
violet tubercles that clothe the whole body are changed into the well-known sky-blue ones adorned with a stelliform covering of hairs,- and were almost full-grown, I was astonished to find that they were suddenly able to produce a peculiar noise. Wheu-
ever I came near them and still more when I touched them, I heard a sort of grating, perhaps more correctly a whurring, which was not unlike the guttural, non-vocal rat- tlingof r, and which has been observed in a kindred way in certain beetles. This
sound can best be imitated artificially by drawing a little stick or perhaps a wire, not too quickly over a grooved surface.
For lack of time I could not determine
then how this sound was produced, but I
think I am not mistaken in supposing that it is produced near the mouth-parts, if not by those organs. It appears to me almost as if the above-mentioned whurring might be considered a sort of cry, one might
almost say a scolding, since the larva, even upon the slightest touch, not rarely jerks the whole anterior part of its body in the most forcible manner, from one side to the other, at the same time producing the
whurring sound. The slightest irritation also is followed by this whurring. But I always observed that the larva drew in its head more or less, according as the sound lasted for a greater or less length of time, of course only while the sound was being produced.
When I communicated this observation
at a June meeting of the entomological
society here it appeared that the facts were not known, up to that time, to any of the persons present, which has induced me to publish this note. I hope I shall soon suc- ceed in rearing a new brood of S. pyri, in order to carry my observations further.
I may remark, further, that I obtained, in this year's breeding, 19 larvae from 20
eggs, and from these larvae 16 pupae, from which I hope to obtain the moths next
spring.
Permit me at the same time to notice
here two other interesting items.
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364 PSYCHE.
year (1881) Mr. Brabandt reared the lar- chrysali~, this spring, afemale Luswcdmpa vae of Stuuropus fag; (called the crab- quercifolh As it was crippled he decided
caterpillar on account of its shape) which to set it out of doors in order perchance to larvae, as is well-known, always quarrel attract a male, or in other words to secure with each other and are fond of biting a fertilization. Luck favored him ; the off each other's front-legs.'
Under suck next morning he found the female, only a circumstances Mr. Brabandt obtained a few steps distant, in copulation with a male. larva which had lost one of its long fore- The latter, in fine condition, was spread. legs in a contest, but tliiri appeared to dis- but the female was imprisoned for the pur- turb the insect little ; and it continued pose of obtaining eggs. Behold ! she did feeding unconcernedly and pupated ; aud, her duty in the most thorough way, for on 5 June of this year, the moth emerged. during the first night she laid DO less than The moth showed only the single defect 510 eggs, and during the second night 70 of not possessing the leg corresponding to more. -a total of 580 eggs, a fecundity the one which the larva had lost. on the part of a lcpidopteron which is - remarkable, and very rarely recorded. Not The following may serve as a contribu- a single egg was abortive, and each one tios to the subject of the fertility of lepid- hatched its young larva.
optera. Mr. Brabandt obtained from a Leipzig, 10 Aug. 1382. ON A LARVA BORING THE LEAFSTALKS OF THE BUCKEYE (AESCULUS GLiiBBA) IN OHIO.
BY EDWARD WALLER CLAYPOLE, MEW ULOOMFIELD, 1'KKliV CO., PA. Several years ago, SOOE! after going to
mischief. "Wherever the hole in the stalk reside'at Yellow Springs, Ohio, I noticed, was closed with droppings the caterpillar in the early part of May, that many of the was present, but whenever the hole was
leaves of the Ohio buckeye, Aeswius gla- open the caterpillar was gone, leading to bra, drooped and withered very soon after the inference that it had escaped through they had unfolded from the bud. For two the opening. or three years these drooping leaves caught After having' made these preliminary
my attciitiou.
On gathering them I uni- notes I attempted, in May 1878, to trace out fbrinly found a small hole in the leafstalk, the life-history of this insect, but, being from which n tunnel, sometimes twelve
very much pressed with work, the esperi- millimetres in length, ran along the stalk. ment was a failure. The leaves were
Above this hole the kaf was dying, below it overlooked for a few days of warm weather, the stalk was still alive. In some few in- became mouldy, and the caterpillars died. stances I found in the tunnel a small yellow- In 1879 I made a second attempt with iah caterpillar, evidently the author of the rather better success, but still without result



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