The text below is grayed out because it is not intended to be read. It is a necessarily imperfect OCR of the original and is only used by a search engine.
48 Flaschka and Floyd: Freeze-drying larvae Vol. 23, no. 1
the simplest and safest way is to place the specimen into the desiccant-containing jar and allow to stand in the freezer for about 3-6 months depending on the size of the caterpillar. The well-known tent caterpillar Malacosoma americana should readily serve as a guide. The specimens used in the experiments were in their last instar and about one inch in length.
Literature Cited
Blum, M. S., & J. P. Woodring, 1963. Preservation of insect larvae by vacuum
dehydration. J. Kansas Ent. Soc, 36:96-101. Meryman, H. T., 1959. Sublimation freeze-drying without vacuum. Science, 130:
628-629.
1960. The preparation of biological museum specimens by freeze-drying. Curator, 5-19.
1961. The preparation of biological museum specimens by freeze-drying: II Instrumentation. Curator, 4: 153-174.
Woodring, J. P., & M. S. Blum, 1963. Freeze-drying of spiders and immature insects. Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer., 56: 138-141.
A NEW FOODPLANT FOR EUPHYDRYAS PHAETON (NYMPHALIDAE)
On July 17, 1967, a wet meadow near Newton, New Jersey, was visited where Melitaea harrisii Scudder and Euphydryas phaeton (Drury) were plentiful. Whenever I find E. phaeton flying, I look them over first for variations, then try to locate the foodplant, turtlehead (Chelone glabra Linnaeus), to find the larva of Papaipema nepheleptena Dyar (Noctuidae) boring in the root of this plant. This meadow and several others in the neighborhood were investigated thoroughly, but no turtlehead could be found. Later, a larva of E. phaeton was found on a plant with white flowers, and further investigation enabled collection of a dozen larvae of all sizes in the space of 15 minutes. The caterpillars were sitting on the top of either leaves or flowers where they could be easily detected. This plant, which was growing in this meadow by the hundreds, was identified as eastern pentstemon (Pentstemon hirsutus Linnaeus), or hairy beard-tongue. It grows from one to three feet high, with the flowers one inch wide. The range of this plant is said to be the eastern half of the U.S.A. and adjacent Canada. Like turtlehead, it belongs to the snapdragon family, Scrophulariaceae.
Turtlehead being extremely rare in the New Jersey area, larvae of E. phaeton should therefore be expected on pentstemon.
Joseph Muller, R.D. 1, Lebanon, New Jersey.