Article beginning on page 318.
Psyche 5:318, 1888.

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318 PSYCHE. [Febrttary 1890.
narrower: last segment also narrower and bluntly rounded at the posterior extremity with two very short, pointed tubercles.
On
each segmentisa transversely oblong, rugose, corneous patch divided in the middle by a narrow dorsal line.
LENGTH about 14 nlm. WIDTH about
4 mm. Lives in numbers in fungus found
on stumps and decaying trees.
William Beute fiwfiller.
OBSERVATIONS ON SATURNIA 10. - At
.Lexington, Mass, 3 July, 1888 I found on the upper side of a leaf of false indigo (Ba-fi- ti& tindoria) a cluster of about fifty (50) eggs. Shape: oblong, compressed on two
sides. Attached to the leaf by their ends and touching each other by their sides. Ar-
ranged for most part in rows.
Color: white,
with black spots on outer end.
In some the
compressed sides were white, while in others they were partially yellow and in others still there was a black spot on each side. On 4 July I found on the under side of wild cherry (Piw- its serotina) leaf a cluster ofabout thirty-four (34) eggs and these had hatched 6 July.
The young larvae were brown, with the head much darker than the body. There were
four rows of spines, sending out star-shaped clusters of concentric branches.
As observed by all writers who have de-
scribed these caterpillars, they have an odd way of following each other, like a file of soldiers, keeping their line of march un- broken, even when turning corners.
The first moult occured 13 July, the second 22 July. I have no record of subsequent
moults.
On the 20 July I found another cluster of thirty (30) eggs also on the under side of a wild cherry leaf. These hatched 2 August. Again, 25 July, in the same situation I
obtained a cluster of twenty-three (23) eggs. These hatched I August.
From these various broods of larvae I
raised a large number of imagines, which afforded me a good opportunity of studying the typical and the variational forms. The following are my conclusions: the males
differ from one another far less than do the females. In the latter the typical form has the fore wing plum-colored and the central dark spot of the hind wings nearly equi- distant from the surrounding dark circle. From the plum-colored form there are several gradations of shade, till we reach a variety in which the fore wings are light brownish grey, with but little of the typical plum color. From the nearly equidistant spot of the hind wings we pass through gradations in which the spot has lost much of its roundness and become nearly contiguous with the circle, on the side towards the outer angle of the wing, till we reach n well marked variety in which the spot is pear-shaped with the small end turned towards the base ofthe wing, the large end almost touching the outer circle.
While the males present less difference, one from another, there is yet a well marked variety corresponding to that of the female just described. On comparison I find that out of more than thirty (30) females there are only four(+) with the pear shaped spo~, while of twenty (20) males there are six(6) with this peculiarity.
Through the kindness of Dr. H. A. Hagen
I have examined the specimens of 5. to in the collection of the Museum of comparative
zoology, where I find a very remarkable
variety in a male, captured, I believe, by Dr. R. Thaxter at Newtonville, Mass., 27 June, 1870.
In this specimen the anterior wings were in the main typical; but the plum-colored concentric spots were somewhat peculiar, the outer one's becoming parallel lines instead of spots. It was in the hind wings that the aberration was most striking. Fhe violet centre of the dark spot was reduced in size, and the surrounding dark area extended to the circle with only a mere suggestion here and there of the normal yellow belt between the dark spot and the circle. The latter, in its turn, had run over into the yellow belt beyond thus making a highly suffused variety. It is my desire at some future time to
ascertain whether these imaginal variations correspond with any larval peculiarities, and also whether they can be reproduced in
breeding.
Holmes Htnkley.




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