Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
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Article beginning on page 251.
Psyche 2:251-253, 1877.

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Paphia gZyc&, for instance, a totally different mechanical provision for clutching the membrane, namely, a notch between the ridges around the rectum and the base of the cremaster proper, in which the skin may be caught, the ridges being, in this species, very narrow, smooth, and shallow, and the ordinary ventral knobs obsolete.
Is this Euchaetes collaris (Fitch.) ?
The earliest, mention of an Euchaetes larva distinct from that of E. egle (Drury), is in Mr. J. A. Lintner's Entomological Con- tributions, iii, p. 147, where it is stated that Prof. C. V. Riley had recently bred the larva of E. collaris, and found it very dis- tinct from that of 3. egle. But Prof. Riley has omitted to pub- lish the differences, and the first account of the larva is given by Mr. G. H. Van Wagenen, in the Canadian Entomologist, Sept. 1877, v. 9, p. 170. As Mr. Lintner's description of the larva and (given in Mr. Van Wagenen's article) differs, in many respects, from one I had previously drawn up from a living specimen, I am led to present this description in full. My observations agree with Mr. Van Wagenen's as to the solitary habits of the larva, but differ as to the food plant; yet his observations may prove that Apocynum is the proper food of the insect. As the existing descriptions of the moth appear to be at variance with one another, a description of the moth reared from the larva is added.
Mature, larva.
Testaceous, clothed with tufts of tawny
plumose bristles; head a little paler. The eight ventral pro- legs with a black spot at their external base. Each of the first
three segments of the body with two black tubercles on each side bearing a few bristles ; first segment with a dorsal fringe of bristles inclining forwards, second segment with two pairs of approximated dorsal tubercles which bear slender tufts of bristles extending 3 mm. beyond the head when the larva is at rest, third segment with two pairs of approximated dorsal tubercles which bear dense tufts of bristles, the bristles curving forwards slightly, and one third longer than those on the abdominal



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segments.
The dorsal bristles of the second and third seg- ments are slightly dusky towards the tip. The remaining segments each have twelve tubercles, disposed in two ranges on each segment, the tubercles alternating on the anterior and posterior portions of the segment, as in E. egle, the two dorsal tubercles of the anterior range being nearer the median line than are the corresponding ones of the posterior range. Most
of the dorsal tubercles are of the color of the body, the others are black. These tubercles bear dense tufts of evenly cut bristles, the dorsal tufts of the last segment being a little longer. Length of larva when at rest 16 mm., including the long bristles which extend beyond the head, 19 mm. ; length when in motion 22 mm., the body then tapering towards the head. Feeds on Asclepias cornuti;
described July 19th, 1875.
The larva gradually cast its bristles, beginning with the an- terior segments, and became a pupa on the 23d of July; the imago appeared on the afternoon of August 3d. Another larva, agreeing with the description, was found feeding on A sc7epias verticillata, in 1876.
From the above description this larva will be seen to be very .
different from the mature larva of E. egle, as described by Harris (Ins. Inj. Veg., p. 359) and by Lintner (Ent. Contr., ii, p. 136), but in its uniform coloration to resemble the young larva of E. egle as described by Lintner (1. c.). The color of the bristles, however, is neither "white," as in the young larva of both species, nor b6 slate color," as in Mr. Van Wag- enens specimens.
Pupa-shell. Rufo-piceous ; head, thorax and appendages, ninth segment and tip of abdomen, free from punctures. Meta-
thorax and first segment of abdomen roughened and having a few punctures intermixed. The segments of the abdomen, from the second to the eighth, distinctly punctured, the mar- gins smooth.
Spiracles of the first segment of the abdomen hidden by the wings, the spiracles on the eighth segment im- perfect. The wing-covers reach nearly to the tip of the fourth segment of the abdomen. The fifth and sixth segments have a pair of slight tubercles beneath. The eighth ventral segment has a slight groove in the median line beneath, and the tip has



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a similar groove ; on each side of the latter the tip is slightly swollen. On the dorsal side the ninth segment has a row of hooklets at the tip, parallel to a similar row on the tip of the abdomen, both rows interrupted in the middle. Length 11 mm. The shell is split across the occiput and along the antennae exteriorly, the prothorax and mesothorax are split in the median line, the suture between the prothorax and mesothorax is some- what broken, and the mesothorax is split from the metathorax. The metathorax and first segment of the abdomen0are firmly united. In counting the segments of the abdomen I have followed the numbering which is usually employed. Imago, 3.
Pale ashy-white, fringes paler than wings, an- terior wings a little darker towards base and costa; back of abdomen dull orange yellow, with a row of black spots in the median line (a slate colored line supplying the place of the spot on the first segment), and two similar rows each side. Body beneath of the same color as wings. Antennae and clypeus dark slate color, palpi black at tip. Legs black, the tarsi ashy beneath, the anterior coxae mostly orange, as are also the thorax just under the wings, the base of the costa of the wings beneath, and the palpi excepting the tips. Length of fore wing 14 mm., of body 11 mm. ; greatest breadth of fore wing 7 mm. ; expanse 32 mm.
Mr. Lintner's specimen from Center, N. Y. (Ent. Contr., iii, p. 146), differs from mine in being a 9, and expanding 1.62 in. [=41 mm.]. Mine agrees with Fitch's except in being slightly suffused with ashy, and in the tarsi being black above and ashy beneath. But Fitch does not mention the con- spicuous color of the abdomen, and as his specimen came from Mississippi, it may not be identical with the northern species. I add, therefore, his description for comparison. "Hypliantria collaris [Fitch, 3d Rept. p. 65, 5 891. A moth
closely related to the preceding [H. textor] and doubtless pos- sessing the same habits has been sent me from Mississippi and probably occurs throughout the Southern States. It is milk white and glossy, its head, neck, base of the outer edge of the fore wings and the anterior hips are pale ochre yellow, and its feet pale brown. Width 1.35 [= 34 mm.] ." Waterbury, Conn. W. H. Patton.




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