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Psyche 1:89-92, 1874.

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Psirhe 1 Wl-93 (pre.1903) hfp //psyche aitclub org/1/1.0089 htd



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1 went'with Dr. Waters to Pleasant Street in Newton, on the grounds of Mr. Davis, of the firm of Hallett & Davis, piano- forte makers, near the Cochituate Aqnednct, where we found thii-four more, one of which was black. We did not get upon the ground till 9 o'clock, P. M,, or later, when it was quite dark and moonless. The larvae seemed to be stHI emerging from the punif, as after taking all I could find at one time in a place I afterwards found more there. These larvse shine with a bright light from their spiracles and the membrane between the rings, which discovers them at a distance of some mds. T found them
mostly near the rocrts of the grass, under or near an evergreen hedge and also a " hck-thorn " hedge, hut some at_a consider; able distance from the hedge, in m owhard. Dr- Water8 found some nnder pine tree3 cm a k h knoII near by. The whole locality vas rather high and dry, no dew being on the ground, nor had there been a dew for several 'weeks. KO larvse were
found near the brook which nms by the orchard, On the evening of the 28th of July we went with two friends to the same locality in Newton where we had found the tinrtp - four larva
There, and on the lane entering Homer Street opposite Mr. E. F. Waters', and on the side of Centre Street, we found twenty more la-, fgur of which were quite Mack ; the others yellow. All were on the average smaller than those black ones nearly of the same size with each f July, I obtained permission to
examine the grounds of Mr. J. R, Lowell, near Mt. Auburn, in Cambridge. There, mder or near pine trees, I cauglit thirty more larvse, fourteen of winch were black; the rest yellow. On the evening of the 6th of Auga'it I honted long and dili- gently for more of. these larvae in Mr. Lew+eII's grounds, but found none.
z
Thus in one month we found eighty yellow and nineteen black luminous Coleopterous larvae. Some ofthege'afterwards escaped, some I preserved in alcohol, some died of unknown causes, but on the 2d of August I had forty-eight living yellow ones and eighteen living black ones in my jar's of earth. The last of thwe died in Novemb f them haying pupated.



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Since the occurrences narrated above, I have made many inquiries about similar larvae, and, have only learned that Mr. Sanborn found three or four larvae apparentlyidentical with one of the above, by the roadside between West Roxbury and Ded- ham. The first he had seen were brought him in 1862, by E. -
S. Rand, Jr., who found them in Dedham.
The most abundant form of these larvae differs so little from the third species " of unknown larvas described by Osten- Sacken in vol. i of the Proceedings of the Entomological Soci- ety of Philadelphia, p. 129, that I think it sufficient only to describe the differences.
*
This is No. 3074 of my collection.
It is 85 mm. long, elon-
gated, with the first five rings behind the small head success- ively widening, the last three rings almost insensibly narrowing, the last ring evenly rounded ; of a soft-leathery consistence. Lateral margins of alt the abdominal segments and sometimes of the thoracic ones, the whole venter, and sometimes alao the front and hind margins of the thoracic segments yellowish. Head retractile, well exserted when in walking, transverse, dilated rnedially behind, dark brown or almost black, sometimes paler on the margins. Anterior margin of the head above between the bases of the mandibles bisinaated, the forward projections of the curve being lateral, and the hollow central and broader. Below, directly over the mouth, the margin is truncate, centrally notched. No separate clypeus or labrum distinguishable. Third joint of antennae cylindrical, twice as long as broad, one-third aa long as the second joint, with no trace of a fourth joint in most casea. Ma11dIbles strongly curved, either one outermost. So-called Lb second appendage " of the maxilla? indistinguishable. Third and fourth joints of maxillary palpi usually at least as long as they are broad. Prothorax, when ex tended, as broad, anteriorly as the head, longitudinal, posteriorly twice as broad as the head. Mesotho- rax and metathorax nearly equal in length, the latter a little longer ; each shorter than prothorax. Punctuation of die tho- rax dmost none. Tips of cox= not very approximate, the po5 terior ones less &qmximate. Hind legs not much larger than the others and having abo'nt the same proportions. All the



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legs spiny and * bristly, but with no complete rings of spines, Abdominal segments not very different in length, but their relative lengths not very definite. Pseudopod a flattened trun- cated cone, of homogeneous fleshy texture ; exsertile tip bitu- berculate or bifurcate.
No. 3075 of my collection, one specimen, is the dead larva given me by Dr. Waters, July 9. Dr. Waters assured me that all the larvae in this lot were luminous, and as they were collected in the evening, they must have been so, yet this larva has a broader head actually and proportionally, short stout mandibles dilated and bent at a right angle in the middle, max- illary palpi not tapering, short and stout, rounded at the end, the third and fourth joints forming a mass of oval outline three times as long as either the first or second ; the labial palpi short and stout, approximate; and other differences which I will not dwell upon with my present material.
The black larvae make a third form, of which I find no speci- mens preserved in my collection, and did not take a particular description. They differ markedly in being able or apt to extinguish their light at times, which none of the yellow larvse did, and then to resume it. They are- much more active than the others, and smaller. I
What else I have to say refers to the first larvas described. They are quite active, and I should judge from the structure of their jaws that they are carnivorous.
I did not succeed in
feeding them with meat, earthworms, slugs, larvae, leaves, nor slices of potato. They were in the habit of descending below the surface of the ground in the daytime, or sometimes remain- ing coiled up on the surface. Numbers congregated in the day time under a piece of tin or a slice of potato. They generally
formed passages in the earth, with "chambers, in which they rested singly. At night they moved about upon the surface. I did not determine whether artificial darkness would arouse them in the daytime. At night they were attracted to the side of the jar nearest artificial light. When disturbed, they roll themselves up with the head applied to the ventral surface of about the sixth ring, and with the terminal segment reaching the back of about the third ring ; the head is then withdrawn



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almost entirely within the prothorax, so that at most the man- dibles, tip of mentum and palpi project beyond the prothorax. When picked up, they give quite a cold sensation to the touch. Sometimes they emit a blackish fluid from the mouth, in the manner of locusts. Erroneously, according to the claims of priority, although the error is more appropriate than the truth, they are commonly called " glow-worms." By the suggestion and indications of Mr. E. P. Austin, I conjecture that they are the larvae of Asaphes rnmnonius. B. Pickman Mann. The Note of the Katydid.
Since I began to study the character of the notes produced by different species of Orthoptera, it has been my fortune to hear that of the true Katydid (Cyrtophyllus concavus) but once. This insect lives in tree tops, one or two only in a tree, in little colonies scattered here and there over most of the United States east of the Rocky Mts. One such colony I encountered in the heart of the city of Springfield, Mass., and spent an evening en- deavoring to reduce the notes to scale. The insects which I observed were from fifteen to twenty rods distant, perched in the tops of maple, cherry and elm trees, not far above my window.
They ordinarily call " Katy, " or say " she did, " rather than u Katy did"; that is, they rasp their fore wings twice, more frequently than thrice ; these two notes are of equal (and extraordinary) emphasis, the latter about one quarter longer '
than the former ; or, if three notes are given, the first and sec- ond are alike and a little shorter than the last; the notes are repeated at the rate of two hundred per minute; and while the interval between two series of notes varies to a certain degree, it is seldom greater than two and one-third seconds, or less than a second and a quarter ; usually it is between one and seven-eighths and two seconds. The accompanying cut, in which each bar represents a second of time, attempts to reduce this to a scale.




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