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Psyche 5:59-60, 1888.

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May 1888.1 PSYCHE. 59
ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS.
SPHINGIDAE OF NORTH AMERICA. -The
American enton~ological society will issue shortly a monograph of the spkisgidae of America north of Mexico, by Mr. John B.
Smith.
PUPA OF DANAIS ARCHIPPUS.-A paper, by
Mr. J. H. Emerton, describing the anatomy of the chrysalis of Dads archipfus will ap- pear in an early numero of the Memoirs of the Boston society of natural history. A plate will illustrate the paper.
A NEW APPOINTMENT.-Mr. Chrence M.
Weed, for some time an assistant of Prof. S. A. Forbes, at Champaign, Ill., has been ap- pointed entomologist to the Ohio agricultural experiment station, at Columbus, Ohio,
where all correspondence fdr him should be addressed.
APHIDIDAE AND THEIR FOOD-PLANTS. -
Bulletin no. 4 of the Geographical and nat- ural history survey of Minnesota contains a synopsis of the aphididae of the state by Prof. 0. W. Oestlund. A list of North Amer- ican plants with species of a-phididae known to attack them is added.
A NEW ELEMENTARY ENTOMOLOGY.-Prof.
A. S. Packard has prepared an Entomo-
logy for beginners, which will be published in June by Henry Holt and company. The book will contain brief descriptions of the prin- cipal families of all orders, followed by direc- tions for collecting and preserving insects, a chapter on injurious insects, &c. The work will be fully illustrated.
COLOR-PREFERENCE IN ANTHRENUS.--T~~
following curious note is taken from a paper by John B. Smith, entitled, "Some observa- tions on museum pests" (Proc. Entom. soc. Washington, 1887, v. I, no. 2), p. 115.
"As a rule Anthenus can hardly be con-
sidered fastidious, but occasionally they man- ifest color preferences. In one specimen of Grafta interrogationis the black spots bor- dering on the costa were neatly cut out, no other portion of the wing being touched. Its career was suddenly cut short before it had quite finished one wing, and I now regret that I did not allow it to continue its work to note whether it would have attacked the
other wing in the same manner."
ON THE SEXES OF LEPIDOPTEROUS larvae.-
Mr. J. A. Weniger, in an article with the above title, published in the Entomologist for April 1887, states that the sex of some of the larvae of Aftacus can be distinguished, in the later larval stages, by examination of the under side of the last segment that bears stig- mata. In the female, on the middle of the ventral side of this segment, there is a dark blotch, in natural size not larger than the head of a pin, and the middle of this blotch has a yellowish tint. In the male the same blotch is present, but its "middle is a dark green spot, which gives the appearance of a hole: this is only from the internal organs, and is a liquid substance ; for should a larvae of each sex be killed and emptied, nothing of the signs will remain." Mr. E: B. Poulton, in a note following Mr. Weniger's communi- cation thinks it should be confirmed by fur- ther observation, but adds : "It is quite clear that, as Mr. Weniger implies, the markings have not the value of external organs of re- production, but if their presence is confirmed they will prove to be the blind terminations of the ducts of the sexual glands, which should -
be found beneath the cuticle at this very spot, as Herold showed, in the case of the larva of Pi'eri's brassicae, towards the beginning of this century."
HOUSEHOLD PESTS. -The publishers of
Good hozuekeefing (Springfield, Mass.) offer four prizes, each of twenty-five dollars, for recipes or treatment against household pests. The first prize is for an exterminator for the so-called Buffalo-bug (Anfienus sc~o-phu- lariae), the second for the bed-bug (Cimex lectularius), the third for moths, and the fourth for flies and fleas. The mode of treat" ment will be published in Good housekeeping, "and afterwards have a test of merit at the Psit-he 5 059-60 (pre.1903). http //psyche aitclub org/5/5.009 html



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PSYCHE.
[May 1888.
hands of a committee, composed of three
competent housewives, and, upon satisfac- tory tests being had, cash prizes will be awarded. The treatment in all cases must be safe for handling, and in no way deleterious to the person, texture, or household belong- ings of any kind."
The notice of these prizes appears in the numero of Good housekeeping for 28 April 1888, but no definite time is set for sending in descriptions of competing methods.
COLORATION OF COCOONS AND PUPAE.-~~
continuation of an item entitled "Mimetic coloration of pupae of butterflies" in the April numero of PSYCHE (p. 48). the following ex- tracts are given, taken from reports, by Her- bert Goss. of the proceedings of the Entomo- logical society of London, at the meetings of 2 Nov. 1887, and 7 March 1888, as published in the Entomologist, Dec. 1887, v. 20, p. 331- 332, and April 1888, v. 21, p. 119.
"Mr. E. B. Poulton exhibited (2 Nov. 1887) the cocoons of three species of lepidoptera, in which the
color of the silk had been con-
trolled by the use of appropriate colors in the larval environment at the time of spinning up. Mr. Poulton said this color suscepti- bility had been previously proved by him in 1886 in the case of Satztrnia car/ini, and the experiments on the subject had been described in the Proc. Royal society, 1887. It appears from these experiments that the cocoons
were dark brown when the larvae had been placed in a black bag; white when they had been freely exposed to light with white sur- faces in the immediate neighborhood. Mr. Poulton stated that two other species sub- jected to experiment during the past season afforded confirmatory results. Thus the
mature larvae of Erioyaster lanestris had been exposed to white surroundings by the Rev. W. J. H. Newman, and cream-colored
cocoons were produced in all cases; whilst two or three hundred larvae from the same company spun the ordinary dark brown
cocoons among the leaves of the food-plant. In the latter case the green surroundings appeared to act as a stimulus to the produc- tion of a color which corresponded with that which the leaves would subsequently assume. Mr. Poulton further stated that he had rr,ore recently exposed the larvae of Halias$rasim ana to white surroundings, and had obtained a white and a very light yellow cocoon-far lighter than the lightest of those met with upon leaves. The larva which spun the
white cocoon had previously begun to spin a brown one upon a leaf, but upon being re- moved to white surroundings it produced
white silk. Mr. Stainton suggested that
larvae should be placed in green boxes, with the view of ascertaining whether the cocoons would be green. He understood that it had been suggested that the cocoons formed
amongst leaves became brown because the
larvae knew what color the leaves would ulti- mately become. Mr. Poulton said he felt
convinced that the whole process was entirely involuntary, and that the susceptibility had arisen through the action of natural selec- tion."
"Mr. W. White read (7 March 1888) a
paper on 'Experiments upon the color-rela- tion between the pupae of Pieris rafne and their immediate surroundings,' which com- prised a detailed account and discussion of a series of observations carried on, at the author's instigation, by Mr. G. C. Griffiths, of Bristol. The various experiments were intended to act as a further test of the con- clusions arrived at by Mr. E. B. Poultm in his paper on the subject recently published in the Transactions of the Royal society; and to effect this object different and additional influences had been brought to bear on these pupae, so that an analogy might be drawn be- tween the two sets of results."
The above notes are given in full, in the hopes that American breeders of insects will try experiments in this direction. The ex- pense, both of time and money, in carrying on this kind of experimenting is little, while the results, if the work is carefully done, are very valuable contributions to pl~ysiological knowledge. G: D.
No. 144 was issued 13 Apr. 1888.




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