Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
Quick search

Print ISSN 0033-2615
January 2008: Psyche has a new publisher, Hindawi Publishing, and is accepting submissions

Article beginning on page 38.
Psyche 8:38-40, 1897.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/8/8-038.html


The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

PSYCHE.
[March 1897.
DIPTKRA FROM THE HEADWATERS OF THE GILA RIVER.-I. BY C. 13. TYLER TOWNSEXD, LAS CHUCKS, 3. MEX. The Rio Gila takes its head in the
mountains of southwestern New Mexi-
co, in northern Grant and southern So-
corro counties. ' A short distance above the Gila Hot Springs, which are about
forty miles by trail north of Silver City, the river splits into its three forks, known as the West Fork [sometimes c:illed
Diamond Creek], the Middle Fork,
and the East Fork. Thesestreamsfol-
low down small caiions, which wind
p into the mountains. About fifteen
to eighteen miles up the first there oc- cur what arc known as the Falls of the
West Fork. Most of the West Fork
collecting in diptera, as well iis other insects, was done about two miles be-
low the falls, where the permanent
a was made. It was all done in
the bottom of the canon, the elevation
being probably about 7000 ft. Some
collecting was also done on the East
Fork, which was followed up past the
D-D-Bar ranch, nucl out into the basin
where, at the base of the Black Range,
is situated the V-Cross-T ranch. The
determinations of the East Fork diptera, as well as of further material from the
West Fork, will appear in a second pa-
per. All the specimens were collected
by the writer, in July, 1894.
Chryso$s ceras n. sp. West Fork.
Six 9 s. Four of them taken July 10,
about five miles above Gila Hot Springs ; and the others July 16 and 17, about fif- ken miles above, at camping place.
Length, 86 to g& mm.
Very near to
C. megaceras Bell., ;ind C. ianyceras
0. S. From C. megacet-as it differs in
the presence of a cinereous border to
inesosc~~tuni and sc~~tclluin ; all the tarsi excluding metatarsi, blackish ; the rest of legs yellowish ; anteiiiial joints I and 2 yellowish-brownish, no yellowish ves-
titure on face ; and in the yellowish-cin- ereous borders to abdominal segments.
It agrees with C. megaceras in the
shape and length of the antennal joints
very closely, thus differing markedly
from C. fanyceras, from whh it fur-
thcr differs by the front and face being cincyenus pollinose, shape of frontal
callosity unlike an ace of spades, palpi mostly blackish but partly yellowish, a
median linear vitta between the thoracic pair, and in other minor points. Both
basal cells arc wholly clear. The relative length of the antennal joints in C. ceras is about 3+ (rarely 4)
: 3 : 14 [some-
times I?].
The first and second joint
seem sometimes to be almost equal, and
the third is often only half as long as
the second. It will thus be seen that
this species goes a step farther in this particular direction 6f antennal devel-
opment than does L. 11zegaceras, which
is the nearest species to it in this regard, next to megaceras being ta/tyceras. It
may be noted also in this connection
that these three species are all of a
general brownish color, and have the
wings obscurely clouded.
Pwht 8 038-41 (prc.1903) http //psyche mtclub or$WS.00-18 html



================================================================================

March 1897.1 ^S 2 T H . 39
$. Front clothed with grayish pollen
which has a brassy tinge except near an- tennae, ocellar area brownish with a slightly fuscous tinge aruuncl it; frontal callosity brown, more or less rounded diamond-
shaped, wider than long. Some black hairs on front. Antennae pale yellowish wit11 a decided fuscons tinge, clothed with fine bluck hairs; third joint black or blackish- brown, pointed-coiiical, bulbous at base. First antenna! joint in one specimen quite fuscous, second joint quite yellowish. Face yellowish clothed with gray pollen, with a yellow, brownish-yellow, or brownish cal- losity on each side, and a smaller black or blackish-brown one on each cheek. Palpi
pale brownibh, or brownish-yellow. Thorax soft brown, with a median pair of widely separated parallel brassy-yellowish vittae hardly reaching scntelhin-i, an interrupted one also on lateral edge of thorax witich is continued nroiiiid edge of scutell~iin, the rest of latter being of the brown color of the t11or:ix. Pleurae gray pollinose. The four yellowish-gray vittae of thorax lcavc the brown in the form of three rather heavy
vittae. Abdomen soft rather dwk brown,
hind corners of first segment gray pollinose; hind borders of second to sixth segments brassy-yellowish, broader on sixth segment, prolonged anteriorly on median line in a pointed vitta not reaching front border of segment, tins point being quite obsolete on iixth segment, seventh segment (as much ;is is visible) wholly brassy-yellowish. Legs yellowish; hips: knees, ends of tibiae, and all of tarsi brown or blackish, except meta- tarsi, only the distal ends of which are black. Knees sometimes without any black or
brown. Venter wholly silvery-graj pollinose. Wings with fuscous clouds on stigma! area, on cross-vein at proximal end of first sub- marginnl and first posterior cells, on cross- veins at distal end of discal cell (or bases of 2d and 3d posterior cells), on furcation of third vein, and at base of fourth posterior cell Only a faint tinge of fuscouselsewhere, becoming faintly yellowi~h on basal half of wing, and with :in irregular whitish nrea on apical potlion. Haltcres soft brown, some- times with a paler shade.
Chysofs facialis, 11. sp. West
Fork. July, 19. One 9.
9. Length, 8 mu. excluding antennae.
Front fully one-third width of head, blackish or brownish, clothed with yellowish-gray pollen. Ocellsu- area oblong, black, polished, reaching nearly to the eye on either side, connected by 21 fuscous spot with the frontal callosity in front ofit; latter shining polished brown, with a yellowish shade on front por- tion and a blackish shade behind,' elliptical, about twice as wideas long. Antennae black, second joint about three-fourths as long as first and reddish on underside, first joint yellowish below and considerably so on sides. Front silvery poilinose in the narrow space between frontal tubercle and antennae. Pace yellow, with silvery pollen at upper corners, yellow pollen in middle and down cheeks, 51 large shining black callosity on each cheek, and four shining brown callosities across mid- dle of face. Palpi blackish-brown, lancets yellowish. Occiputgrayisli-brassy. Under- side of head with whitish hair. Thorax shin- ing black, with a pair of median yellowish- gray vittae separated by a brownish line, a black line on the outside of these: a grayish- brassy stripe on each side and two below on pleurae parallel with it. Thorax thinly
clothed on dorsum and pleurae with yellow hair, thicker lines of which follow the lateral and upper pleural pollinose stripes. Scutel- lum shining black, faintly grayish pollinose, with yellowish hairs. Abdomen yellow, first segment with two large coalesced median
black spots leaving only II dot of yellow on middle of hind margin, second and third
segments each with a black marking formed by the coalescing anteriorly of two sub-rec- tangular spots which leave a median yellow angle invading the black marking behind,



================================================================================

fourth and fifth segments each with four of these sub-square black markings united along front border, sixth segment wholly black. Abdomen thinly yellow-hairy. Legs yellow, the hips, knees, ends of tibiae, and whole of tarsi black. except middle and hind metatarsi and next tarsal joint which are yellow, only the distal ends beingblack. Win~s with the first basal cell more than half cloude~l prox- im;itly, the second basal cell less tlian I-ialt', the anal cell nut at all except narrowly in dis- tal end, the hvo basal cells being also clouded in distal ends. The distnl ends of the mar- ginal and first submarginal cells with EUI apical cloud, which extends into the second siihmarg-inal cell. The median broad black cross-band of wing invades slightly more than the proximal half of the first submar- ginal and first posterior cells: the whole of discnl cell, less than proximal half of second posterior cell, about half of third posterior, all but the distal end of fourth posterior, and hardly the proximal half of fifth posterior, besides also the distal ends of the anal and basal cells as above mentioned. The clear portion of basal hnlf of wing is whitish, ex- cept for the broad border of anal ansle which is very Faintly cloudy; likewise there is a white distill border to the middle ti-ansversc bmd, leaving the clearer portion of apical half of ring also very faintly clouded. IIal- teres jellow.
ErIstaUs Icttifro7zs Loew. Head of
East Fork. D-D-Bar ranch. July 22.
Three 8 s, and one 9 .
Length, 10 to
12 mm. The 8 s are all the normal
form, without cloud on the wings and
with the lateral triangles of second ab- dominal segment distinctly yellowish.
The 9 , however, belongs to the van-
ety mentioned by me in Trans. Am.
Ent. SOL, xxii, p. 49. 11 has the con-
spicuons cloud on the wings, and the
triangles of second segment are pale
brownish, but showing yellowish on
inner angle. The opaqne interrupted
fascia of third segment is obsolete ill
this specimen.
Chysoclilfimys croesus 0. S. West
Fork. July 12. Two 9 s. Length, 10
to 11 mm. They agrcc well with
Williston's description (Syn. Syrpli .) . Dejeanla cor$nlenta \,Vied. West
Fork. July 16. One 9. Length, 15
mm. The frontal bristles do not descend
more 1li;in one or two below 1x1s~ of
antennae. Ground color of head and
thorax rich brassy-golden or pale old
gold, the palpi several shades darker
than head and thorax but still some-
what lighter tllm the reddish-yellow
legs. Otherwise it agrees well with
V. D. Wulp's supplementary descrip-
tion in Biol. C. A. Dipt., ii, p. 10.
Slyobia gile?tsis 11. sp. West Fork.
July 16. One $. Length, 8 mm.
Near M. diadems Wcl., and &'I. flavi-
$enxis Wd.
3. Face and front silvery-white, frontal vitta rusty-golden. Antennae yellow, distal half of third joint and all of arista dusky brownish. Third antennal joint two or three times as long :is second. Palpi reaching nearly to epistoma, slender, yellowish. Pro- boscis slender, yellowish on basal half, dusky brownish iipically. Front at vertex about one-sixth width of head, widened before base of antennae. Frontal villa fully as wide as sides of front. Face receding, epistoma
prominent. Cheeks and underside of head
silver>-. Occiput cinereous, golden near vcr- tex. Thorax cinereous, humeri and pleurae norc silvery. A very faint brassy shade to thorax, scutellum quite golden. Four strong bristles on margin of scutelluin. Abdomen yellow, second and third segments with a



================================================================================

median longitudinal cinereous stripe, spread- but little shorter Lh;in front txrsi.
Wings
ing out on hind border of third segment and clear, third vein with three 07 four bristles at covering fourth. No discal niacrochaetae. extreme base. Tegulae saturate tawny, hal- Legs long, yellowish, tarsi black. Front teres yellow-vvhi~e. Apical cell very nar- tiu-si considerably longer than front tibiae, rowly open, ending but little before actual but not nearly twice us long. Other tarsi tip of wing, A SOUTHERN RACE OF DATANA PERSPICUA GR. AND ROB. (VAR. MESILLAE) .
BY T. D. A. COCKERELL, MESILI.A, NEW MEXICO, On July 20. 1896, Mr. Sherfcy, our super- intendent of schools, brought me great
numbers of a larva on Rhm canctdensis (m'o- maticc). which lie liad found in Ilia garden in Mesillii. New Mexico.
I was surprised to
see that tliey belonged to Dafmn~a genus I had never before seen or heard of in New Mexico. On comparing them with the
descriptions in Dr. Paclard's recent mqnifi- cent monograph, I felt sure, from the concol- orous hairs and oilier characters, that I h ~ d before me a variety of wintstra, similar to, but not identical with, the vat-. cal/'fomi'ra (Rile?). The larvae were 3.5 mrn. Ion% and differed from the description of minisf~a by the dark reddish prothoracic shield; the base of the legs was dull crimson; head black; lines on bod? ~ilphur yellow.
On filly 22, Mr. Slierfey brought me eggs and young larvae from the same bush, sliow ing some in'eg~ilarit? in Llie broods. Tlic eggs were laid in great nimibers, touching, on the under side of the leaf; they were chalk-white, rounded, rather low, hardly shiny, not perceptibly sculptured, with the usual black speck.
The young larvae were
dark crimson with chrome yellow lines and black heads.
Mr. Sherfey kindly undertook to raise the moths for me, and tliey emerged in numbers at the middle of August.
To nly surprise,
the moths were evidently not ministra, hut belonged with $e~~$icna and ~obusfa. Dr. H. G. Dyzr, to whom I sent specimens, as- sures me that they are å´perspicua
slightly
tending in the direction of robusfa, but still unmistakable å´per.?$ir.ua A comparison
with Dr. Packard's figures entirely supports this view, but the oblique streak to the apex of the primaries is almost or quite obsolete. D. jerspicua is a nol-thei n species, which does not appear to give off any southern segregates in the eastern U. S.; but in the Central Region we had already a very dis- tinct oflihoot, the D. robusta Strecker, 1872, found in the Lower Sonoran zone in Texas. Mesilla, as Prof. Townsend and the writer have shown elsewhere, is in the Upper
Sonui-an, and it is therefore not surprising tlixt the representative of D. å´fierså´plcv should be dift'erent from robusfu, and more c1osel.v ii-pproximate to the type. That the modification is more marked in the larva than in the imago is interesting, but not surprising, considering that the moths are nocturnal, while the larvae are exposed in broad daylight, and doubtless possess warn- ing colors.
It appears that D. å´perspicu. h:is been taken by Prof. Gillette at light. In Mesilla, when the moths must have been emerging
in great numbers, I never took any at light. For this Mesilla race of D perspicua, i
will propose the varietal name mesillae.



================================================================================


Volume 8 table of contents