Article beginning on page 149.
Psyche 5:149, 1888.

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January 1889.1 PSYCHE. 149
15 Aug. Fourth molt.
The venter was black, and the props
were black with white tips. On first
and second segments, the arrow-heads
were replaced by vertical black dashes,
extending nearly to the dorsal line.
The yellow one came out with the
body black, the hair Maltese-gray, light- er over the head ; pencils darker gray
with black tips. The gray one was like
it.
26 Aug. Adult larva, 51 mm. long,
densely covered with long silky hair-
varying in color from pure white to deep gray. Pencils almost black with black
tips. Head gray.
Body hardly to be seen but black
wherever visible. Props black with red
tips. Feet black.
27 Aug.
Three shed all their pencils
and long hair, emptied themselves, and
crawled rapidly about as if hunting for
good places to pupate. Rotten wood
and bark were provided, but no attention was paid to them, and no signs of spin-
ning were found.
30 Aug.
The pupae appeared, bright
apple green, with three abdominal rows
of gray dots, at first, but they soon be- came of a uniform mahogany color, very
shining and bright, about 19 mm. long.
Some were in close tins, and some in
a paste-board box, but those in tin pupa- ted first.
The larvae fed on sassafras grew faster
and larger than those fed on ash, and
molted and pupated earlier.
As the larvae grew older they chose
older leaves, in preference to young and tender ones, as food.
This I have noticed with all my larvae
this year.
ELECTRIC LIGHT CAPTURES.
BY JOHN HAMILTON, ALLEGHENY, PA.
The reputed rarity of an insect is fre-
quently owing to its ability to conceal
itself and a want of knowledge in the
collector regarding its habits, whereas
it may be really abundant. ' This is
exemplified in the instances of Caloso-
ma scrutator and C. å´wiZZcoxi During
near twenty years of collecting here I
only took a single living specimen of
each; Mr. Klages who has collected
near half that time - and carefully, was not more successful, nor were several
amateurs whose collections were seen.
Yet all this time there were thousands
of these insects about us as we now know. This year (1888) the evenings of 9, 10
and 11 May were warm, temperature
60' to 65' F. During one hour of each
of these evenings I picked up from the
platform of an open pavilion in one of
our parks in the centre of the city,
to the corners of which powerful elec-
tric lights were suspended, ninety $
and thirty 8 Calosoma scrutator; one
hundred and ten $ and twenty-six if
C. å´wilZcoxi Three weeks of low tem-




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150 PSYCHE. [January 1889.
peratui-e and great humidity succeeded
during which time no beetles were
observed, but on 2 June it became warm
again and so continued, and these same
beetles again occurred, but much less
abundantly, and continued till 23 June,
after which no more were observed.
Mr. Klages collected during a few even-
ings at the electric lights suspended
opposite the large plate-glass windows
of some of the stores in Pittsburgh with such success, that he sent to Europe
seven hundred specimens of C. zuillcoxi
and three hundred of C. scrutator (his
correspondents there write for more !).
Where these beetles came from is a
matter of speculation, but it is scarcely supposable that all were raised in the
city. The number of individuals must
have been immense as the collecting
done by Mr. Klages and myself was
only at a few places, and for a very
brief period, and that in face of the
small boy, etc., etc., difficulty. Of CaZo- soma calidum, which has always been
moderately abundant, not over a dozen
specimens were taken at light the whole
season. C. extermim yielded five spec-
imens, Diplochila major four speci-
mens, Polymechus brevipes six spec-
imens, Erycus puncticollis four spec-
imens, none of which had been taken
elsewhere.
To show the great distances to which
water beetles fly, I may state that at
the same place on the evenings of May
mentioned I picked up twenty-three 9
and four $ Cybister ftmbrio/atus, one
$ Dytiscus fasciventris, twenty-four
$ and seven $ Hydrojhzlus tri-
ang?iZaris. The great hemipteron,
Belostoma americanum could have
been taken by the peck. The nearest
point to the river is more than three-
fourths of a mile.
The number of coleoptera and insects
of all orders that are attracted to the
electric lights in these cities is beyond computation.
EFFECT OF CONSANGUINITY IN
LEPIDOPTERA.
The late M. Pierre Millikre contributed
an article, entitled, "Des rdsultats varies que donnent chez les ldpidoptkres les accou- plements consanguins," to IZ natitralista siciZiano for May 1887, which contains facts interesting to the biologist.
He writes :
'When, among lepidoptei-a bred in captiv- ity. pairings continue from one generation to another, without interrupting the series of consanguineous unions by the iritroduc- tion of new blood, there occurs for each spe- cies a particular result, in such manner that the consanguineous and successive unions not only do not produce, for the lepidoptera in general, identical results, but, on the con- trary, each species conforms to an influence which is peculiar to itself.''
As illustrating this variety of effect of con- sanguineous unions in lepidoptera the author obtained fertile eggs for two successive years from Hadena solieri; the third year only about half the eggs hatched, while the fourth



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