Article beginning on page 42.
Psyche 8:42, 1897.

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PAS YCHE. [March 18971
LIFE HISTORY OF SYNTOMEIDA MINIMA GKOTE. B}' HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK.
Only recently I had the pleasure of adding this little moth to our fauna (Ent. news, vii, 69) and now I am able to present its life his- tory. The larvae were found at Miami,Flor- ida in December, 1896, on a creeping plant which looks like a little holly and grows in the pine barrens among the saw palmetto and "coontie." The plant is Myginda iliciyoIia; as I learn from Mr. Kinzel. A few moths
were seen at the same time, and from them some eggs were obtained. There sire five larval stages, occasionally, perhaps often, more, but there,is no difference in appearance. Egg. Sharply conoidal, rather pointed
above, narrowed at base ; smooth, shining, light ocher yellow, with a very bright pearly white reflection on the side. Shell white. under :I half inch objective, lustrous, irrides- cent, smooth. without reticulations. Diatn- eter .8, height .7 mm. Laid singly, or two to seven together on the back of a leaf of the food plant.
Stage I- Light orange, imtnaciilate,
sinooth. slightly shining, segments distinct; width of head .5 mm. Setae rather long,
blackish, iv and v whitish. On the thorax three setae from a large subdorsal wart and a small one below; n stigmata1 and subventral tubercle all normal for the family. On the abdomen i and ii normal, large, iii with two setae, iv very small, v rather large, leg plate with several short setae. Subpritnnrj setae nil absent.
Stqe If. All orange, warls co~~colorous, small, rather smooth. Hair fine, not dense, in spreading tufts, light slate gray, composed of dark and pale hairs; width of head .75inin. Si'a~re [If. Orange, iminauilate, the hair thin and gray; hei~d 1.1 mm,
Stage IV. Joint 2 retracted ; three warts on the thorax.
Skin sinooth, orange red, irreg-
ularly shaded with grayish dorsally and in a distinct, broad, diffuse, subventnil band. Warts small, concolorous, grayish in the gray marks, normal, iv absent except on
joint 12, where it is represented by two tiny hairs. Hair not long, thin, not abundant and nofconcealing the body, slat? gra'y, grow- ing in small spreading tufts. Head light orange; width I .7 mm., rounded, scarcely bibbed. Hairs finely simply barb~iled, LIII- der a lens blackis11 and pale mixed. There are no tufts or plumes.
Sfnye V. Head rounded, light orange with pale hairs; width 2.4 mm. Warts normal
for the Euchromiidae except for the absence of wart iv. Ground color of body orange
red; a heavy, wide and difl'iise dorsal band reaching to wart ii and a second band from wart iii to the feet, slightly interrupted around the whitish spiracles, thus ni:iking the body dark with :I lateral red hand.
Warts concolorous, dark, rather small.
Hairs barhiited, gray, black and whi~ish mixed, except from wart i and ii above on joints 5 to 12, where they are darker and thick, almost tufted, forming a. series of short, separated, ill-consolidated brushes. Venter and feet orange. Length about 20 mm.
There is considerable variation in the amount of blackish shading present in the last stage. One larva spun in the plumage of stage IV. Cocoon elliptical, composed of hairs and silk, moderately firm, but scarcely opaque; only a few of the hairs sticking- straight through.
Pupa uniformly light brown, smooth and
ehining.




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