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 102.
Psyche 8:102, 1897.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/8/8-102.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.

102 PflCHE. [August 1897,
Baird's house in Washington, D. C.,
on the night of July 19, r868.
Dictyophorus reticutatus Thunb.
A specimen kept in captivity was ex-
cessively deliberate in its movements;
to clean its antennae it treads upon one at a time and draws it from under its
feet; it was very tame and would leap
but a few inches it a time. Two speci-
mens from Lookout Mt., Tenn., were
sent me by Mr. B. P. Mann, both
females, and when received (by mail)
one had eaten the entire abdomen of the
other excepting the sternal portions and the ovipositor ; yet the injured specimen did not seem to mind it greatly !
Melanoplus femur-rubrum (De
Geer). At Sudbury, Vt., specimens
taken in low meadows differed from
those captured in hollows of dry upland
hilly pastures in being darker colored
and having more contrasted coloration.
Three quarters of an hour after sunset
on a cloudy evening in August a speci-
men was unable to see my hand, as
it several times did not move until
touched ; then, however, it jumped to
another blade of grass. The experi-
ment was tried several times with the
same individual and with the same
result.
Melanoplus collinus Scudd. This
species was found abundantly at Sud-
bury, Vt., where, on Aug. 15, no eggs
could be found in the ovaries of the
females examined ; the ovaries were
spread as a mere film on the intestines
and no eggs could be detected with a
strong- pocket lens.
Melanoplus femoratus (Burm.) .
The ovaries in this species occupy the
dorsum of the body from the meta-
thorax to the fifth abdominal segment
inclusive ; at the latter point the oviducts turn ventrad, clasping the alimentary
canal, meeting beneath and turning
backward together to the ovipositor ;
the tracheae pass between the ovaries
and the intestine and branch upon the
former.
A RARE TRACT.
THERE has lately been presented to the
library of the American Entomological Soci- ety by Mr. Wm. J. Fox, a small pamphlet
(3& x 54) from the library of the late T. R. Peale, which bears the title: "Catalogue of the Lepidoptcra of New Orleans and its
vicinity, prepared by L. \-on Reizenstein. Printed for R. C. Kerr, librarian of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, New Orleans 1863." There are some items of interest in the catalogue to which attention may be
called. The following species are credited to the district mentioned.
'$ Papilio ĺ´prciosilat~ Dru. Greenville, rare." This is given by Kirby as a synonym of Sinon Fabr.
' Goniojh'eryw ecltpsis" = Gonepieryx ma- rula Fabr.
" Xawtkidia (Tends) sytvatica Mss. rare, Western Lake Shore."
" Helicoriia{Ita///omz " = Zthoini~
dia-
+nus Dru. Dr. Scudder says of this species (Syn. List; Buff. Bull. 2, 246, 1875) : " I cannot find any authority for the occurrence of this butterfly within our 1i:nitsJ excepting Edwards, Synopsis, and Mr. Edwards does
not recollect upon what grounds he placed it there."
" Argy?a?zis bria~eu Godt rare." " Le?rzi?i- ilis f cua'mus Cram. ? -pherecides Cram." These last two are synonyms of Aganisthos achermtia Fabr.
Afitura myof.<; Mss. on elm trees."




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

August nSq7.1 Pflcm. 103
'( Calisto zafiffis Fabr."
" Thecia io Mss. City Park, rare. On
Cammomilla."
' Thecia ixion " Fabr.
Lists of moths are also given under " VES- PKRIDAE, PHALAESIDAE and TIXEEADAE."
A list of nondescripts is given whicl~ includes thirteen butterflies and hixty-one moths, There have been very few collectors in the ucality and I am quite prepared to believe the above mentioned species, were found, Species new to our fauna are constantly being recorded from Florida and Texas which have been described from further south. Mrs.
Slosson has recently caught a number of
species in Southern Florida hitherto only known from the Antilles. ?fenry Skinner. NOTES ON EPIIYRA PENDULINARIA.
THE following notes were made nearly
fbrty years ago for a study of the insects of sweet-fern (Comptonia) which I may possi- bly still be able to complete.
The caterpillar was first observed Aug. 22, 1859, at South Windsor, Conn., and the
following description taken :
Color, green; head rust-red with yellowish streaks, and a few scattering hairs; frontal triangle whitish; head appendages except tip of mandibles whicli arc black, white; eyes partly black and partly rust-red. Terminal scgment and prolegs roseate spotted with hint green, with a green stripe down hind- most prolegs ; body with ten or twelve rows of dots, orcontin11ally interrupted lines of a fainter green above, about as many beneath, taking up half the space; stigmata1 line very slightly and irregularly pinched. Three rows of short, very fine black hairs on each seg- ment transversely, the center row having but half as many as either of the others, which have but ten hairs in a row, equally above and below; the central row seems to be irreg- ular, and wanting on some segments; legs whitish with a few hairs on them. Length + 2 in ; breadth - 4 in.
The thoracic segments and basal joints
of legs so contractile that the caterpillar can put all three pairs together on the jaws, with sciircely a bend in the body, and when he does so these segments are so swollen as to give a clubbed look to the caterpillar. When moving, it swings its body sideways (stand- ing on its prolegs) like a pendulum for a while, and then with great tremulousness and frequently touching the surface, goes on. In eating, it cuts deep holes in the leaf, eating at the edge, eating backwards very vora- ciously for about one-eighth of an inch; then beginning again where it started it goes over the hitten space eating deeper and deeper till the whole is sometimes deeper than wide; it is fond of placing its prolegs on the end of a branch and lookingnut upon the outer world. It will spin a head; it often will stand upon the midrib with its prolegs and curving its body, place its legs a little way above the surface, and here remain a long while,
looking like a kangaroo ready to reap.
It went to the under side of an oak leaf in its tumbler on Aug. 26, and began spinning,
attaching itself by a fine silk circle to the terminal prolegs, and fastened a thread
around one of its segments after the manner of butterflies; changed the same day to a chrysalis, throwing the larval skin entirely away.
Chrysalis light green, a black stripe broken twice toward the end on each side, along the hinder margin of the wing. Two protuber- ances, one at the base of each win& white, brownish at base; tail-piece almost colorless, tip red. Abdominal segments of a lighter color than the rest, with dots of a lighter tint; anterior Iiiilf of each abdominal seg- ment punctate, posterior half minutely stri- ate; a thread crosses the body upon which it rests suspended; the thread splits into two at the ends, being fastened at four points : the back is slightly roofed on thoracic segments; the tail-piece is immersed in a silken mass, by which the body is retained in position; head end of the body flat and as if truncate; two projections like warts at base of each wing; the bead is square, and the breast flattened; the sides of the bodyhalf way down



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


Volume 8 table of contents