Article beginning on page 241.
Psyche 3:241-242, 1880.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/3/3-241.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. 241
Whether the male Cutex can bite, or
the females often driuk with avidity.
not,
is a question to which I can give
Upon anatomical grounds I believe
no decisive answer; but I do not be-
that male mosquitoes take liquid food,
lieve it can. I have often taken male
although I have never dissected their
mosquitoes, with all possible care to stomachs to see what this food was. prevent disturbing them, beneath a glass They have mouth-parts and pharynx cover upon my, hand, letting them remain developed siifflcieutly to suck liquids ; long euotigh to he as tranquil as they but the absence of barbed maxillae, of were when npoa the leaves and grass of a free hypopharynx, and of an oesopha- the field, but they would neither bite nor geal bulb, leads one to suppose that they show any desire to do so, nor have I been take a smaller quantity of food than the able to feed male mosquitoes with water, females do, and tht they do not obtain saliva or fresh blood, all of which liquids it by piercing the shins of animals. *
TBYRIDOPTEEJT EPHEMBRAWORMJS HAWORTH. ITS HABITS AND METAMORPHOSIS.
BY HELEN SELMA KING, SAX ANTONIO, TEXAS. THIS insect, whose range embraces The perfect insect is bisexual but is Europe and Australia, is also found in
supposed to be occasiondiy parthenoge-
certain parts of the United States. netic. I have not yet demonstrated this
Near Dallas, Texas, hundreds of ce-
latter trait.
dar trees may be seen stript of all foliage The rnae has short, sub-hyaline wings,
and killed by this insect, with their sparsely scaled, of a dull brown color, branches laden with ita cases. Wear and quic-kly expanding as in hesperiaus, Austin, Texas, its favorite food is a which if, atso resembles in its broad species of wild bramble, Sm-ilwv row
head and large eyes.
The antennae are
efoliu Young, but many other trees and deeply pectinate on their basal half, with shrubs furnish ready substitutes. Among minute pectination on the terminal por- these are the scrub-oak, the peach pome- tion. The abdomen, usually short, show-
granate, the Judas tree (Cercis), and ing the tip of the terminal segment is re- even weeds of certain kinds, while the tractile and capable of great extension. variety of cedar found there does not
The female is apterous, apodous, ami
aeem to be molested. almost acephalous, the small head, bent The habits of this insect have already
slightly forward, being scarcely distin- received the careful atientiou of euto-
guishable as such bubfor ite relation to. mologiete and my object is to fill, as far the other members, and its two mhnte as I can, any blanks which may have
ocelli. There are uo antennae, and no
occurred in previous observatious, by visible organs of manducation. This giving such items as have rewarded my small head and the gradually enlarging personal attention to its habits and met- thoracic segments are acutely carinated amorphosea.
on the median dorsal line, and are en-




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

he eggs mature, according to the sea-
is a dark movable body, plainly seen
three, six, or eight. weeks and
neath the skin, corresponding in ae; larvae are found as early latter part of June. Having
male imago lives and dies in her ease,
a paler color, cy
When first noticeable, the larva is about the thin rnembar
2 mm. long. It cote out circular pieces
å´o the leaf, about the size of a small
f 1
1 t
f
seema to have been covered with lor em1 01 113 iiniu segment i~ineriug hair of a soft eilky texture and a the inner surface of the cone. It motions, falls like down around another, and, unlike the more fully ahe projects her head from the lower end leave its case and afterwards re-
of the case and begins to deposit her
to it. When not feeding it spins
40
rts
n thus for wee
anteriorly, and the elastic membrane
ormation from about the middle of
rfaroh to the middle of May. When
kst matured from the pupa@@ ehe
tacit-head; this it spins together wit!
a little silk into a small cone, which ii carries with the apex in the air, the pas. move pemftnent features, it is abont
mm. Ions; with a case much longer.
i




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

are sometimes visible, are of a dull If the case of one of these larvae be brown, and with no distinctive features, cut open, and an empty one be cut and The silk tubes are quite conspicuous; applied to it, the larva, although pre- mouth-parts dark.
paring to euter the. pupa stage, will rouse The anterior segments are longer itself and unite these into one. The than the others, and the large, strong, larvae also use for the construction of clawed feet seem to apring from the these cases various hinds of leaves, middle line of the venter, making a twigs, and vines. These are put on, one semicircle terminated bv the claws, over the. other, like shingles on a house, When the larva is resting in the day
and frequently so near together that they these claws are all bunched np, at the
stand out straight and look ruffled.
mouth of the case, or withdrawn within
A larva having been removed from its
it, only one remaining attached to the
case am1 put in a pill-box, with some
branch from which it is thus momentarily raw cotton and its proper food, soon con- suspended.
stmcted for itself a new case from the
At night the larva spins a number of
cotton, lined it with dk, made a month
threads from the case around the branch, for it. and then, crawling to a branch
and retires within its recesses.
Ordina- placed near, suspended itselfas usual. rily the mouth of the ease, large and
In order to remove it from its natural
.
loose, falls together when not expanded
case I had only to touch this on one end, hy the larva's body. For the pupal
and the larva would continue retreating
change, it spins np the mouth and fixes
until it emerged at the opposite extrem- it firmly to some stationary object, ity. After many interesting exploits usnally its food-plant.
this larva disappeared,
HABITS OF BYPOPEEPIA PACIL4RDII, GROTE.
BY MART ESTHER MURTFELDT, KIRKWOOD, MO.
IN 1879 1 had the pleasure of tracing
seen nothing since that date referrjug to the larval history of the pretty little this species, I trust that the following Lifehosian above named, the imago of notes may not be altogether without in- which was described some years ago by terest to those making a specialty of the Mr. A. R. Grote in the Proceedings of group to which it belongs. the Entomological Society of Pliiladel-
Two larvae were found in dormant
phia, April, 1%3, v. 2, p. 31.
state, 20 Dec., under loose bark of black Upon my writing to Mr. Grote regard- oak (Quereus tinctoria Bart.). They ing its immature stages, he informed me were then about 6 mm. in length, hairy, that nothing had been published on the
and of a mottled light and dark pay
subject, and that he himself had never
color, the head being similarly clothed
observed the transformations. As I have and colored. They bore a strong pen-



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