Article beginning on page 401.
Psyche 5:401-402, 1888.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/5/5-401.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.

August-October ~Sgo. j p6'YcHE. 401
it in the act. The head is as wide as the prothoracic and middle body-segments ;
the 3d thoracic and 1st abdominal seg-
ments are by this time somewhat swol-
len. A distinct narrow white lateral line is now present, while the dorsal region
between the two lines is paler than on
the sides of the body. The head is now
rough with small pointed tubercles.
There are no lateral oblique stripes
present. The caudal horn is reddish
flesh-colored, becoming darker at the
tip.
Sfage IV. Length 25 mm. Moulted
24 July. This I suppose to be the third
moult. The head is long, somewhat
lengthened towards the vertex, and
slightly flattened on the sides; the sur- face is unequally tuberculated with sharp conical white tubercles arranged in irreg- ular longitudinal lines. There is along
each side of the head a broad, yellowish latenil stripe, and a faint yellowish shade along each side of the median suture.
The yellowish line on the side of the
head is continued on the body as a sub-
dorsal whitish line, which is faint on the prothoracic segment ; this line behind
the middle of the 3d thoracic is formed
of a row of rather large conical tuber-
cles, it again becomes continuously
white on the 7th and 8th abdominal seg-
ments, fading out at the base of the cau- dal horn. which is whitish, with sharp,
slender black tubercles on the upper and under side of the horn, the tubercles on the sides being white; the tip of the
horn is flesh-colored, and the entire horn is nearly twice as long as the body is
thick. The spiracles are raw-sienna
brown, with a white spot at each end
of the respiratory slit above and below. The thoracic legs are peculiarly spotted with black on the green base, and are
reddish cherry at the ends. All the ab-
dominal legs are greenish. The body
is thickest on the id thoracic and 1st
abdominal segment. On the zd thoracic
to the 5th abdominal segment are faint
oblique lateral whitish stripes, bearing white obliquely-arranged white tuber-
cles, those on the first three abdominal segments more distinctly underlined by
white. It died 5 Aug., when nearly
full-fed.
NOTE OX TWO SPECIES OF DATAXA.-
From my remarks after the two species
of Datana which I described, (Psyche,
v. 5, p. 299-300,) it might be inferred that they were compared with a number of allied species. I would like therefore to state that Datana modesta was compared with the type of D. floridam in the collection of Mr.
' Edward L. Graef, and that D. palmil was compared with a type of D. kteperriina G. & R., in the collection of the late Coleman T. Robinson, now in the American museum
of natural history, N. Y.
William Beufefimdler,
EDWARDS'S BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TRANS-
FORMATIONS.--~~ will be strange if an impetus is not given to the study of the earlier stages of lepidoptera in this country by the biblio- grahy of the literature of the subject, prac-



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

402 PSYCHE. [August-October 1890.
tically complete, which Mr. Henry Edwards1 has recently published. Of course, in the nature of things, it is a simple compilation ; but since our actual knowledge of the perfect insects in the lepidoptera is out of all re- lation to our knowledge of their earlier con- ditions and their life histories, every contri- bution which tends to lessen the disparity is a distinct gain. We therefore particularly welcome the present work as one likely to have a marked influence in that direction especially if followed up, as the author pro- inises, by annual appendices.
The insects concerned are systcmatici'illy arranged, following the lists of Edwards, Grote, Fernald and others; under each spe- cies the recorded transformations, whether given in description or figure are arranged (generally in a single line) chronologically, a form ofexposition which has a definite value as showing in so many cases the advance of our knowledge and the sources of borrowed material; finally the food-plants are given, not always so fully or specifically as might have been done. Short descriptive words
such as "condensed" or "quotes French" etc. often characterize a reference briefly to in- dicate its value, and we think a more liberal use of comments in this brief form would have- added much to the usefulness of the catalogue, and would have required little more work if undertaken from the outset. The labor of such a bibliography, however, necessitating exactitude at every step can be appreciated only by those who have tried it ; and the last straw may sometimes break the poor camel's back. Nearly nine teen hundred species are indexed, and sixty-five authors cited.
As our knowledge of the lepidoptera of
North America may almost be said to have originated in the famous folios of Abbot and Smith which a century ago recorded and
- -
'Bibliographical catalogue of the described transfor- mations of North American lepidoptera. By Henry Edwards. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 35. Svo. Wash- ington, 1889, pp. 147.
pictured the transformations of so many
species, many indeed hardly ever bred since then, it is not surprising that the earlier stages of lepidoptera should always have had their devotees in this country, and that, all things considered, our country is as well known in this respect as we could expect. That, however, a wealth of material lies untouched at our very doors the pitifully meagre entries which have often to be made in this bibliography bear abundant proof, while a comparison of this list v ith those of* the known species should make us rather
ashamed than proud of the record which Mr. Edwards holds up before us. We commend
this book to the American lepidopterist as the most important work of reference he can have in his library.
DO FLIES MIGRATE?--~O~~ years ago,
early in September, I saw a migration of butterflies, Aaosia $/fxif&~.s, at Little Boar's Head, N. H., which I have recorded in my Butterflies of the Eastern U. S., v. I, 730. They were moving southward along the
shore. One afternoon at the end of last July, July 27 to be exact, I was sitting on the shore itself, backed by a bank, within gunshot of the same spot at which I had seen the flight of Anosia, when my attention was directed to the constant southward movement of small flies. There was practically no wind, but the flies moved swiftly in one direction for the space of two nours, forming' a stream such as might readily pass through an open barrel ; their numbers varied ; at times but 3 or 4 would pass a given point every second ; at other times hundreds ; but on the average they were as many in the given area as drops of rain in a smart shower; rarely one would be seen moving out of the stream, and then it was in a diametrically opposite direction, and just as swiftly. I should add that the direction was evidently influenced in part by the trend of the low bluff" at the base of which I was sitting, and I did not go elsewhere to observe them. The stream was not more




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

August-October ~Sgo.] PSYCHE. 403
than three feet distant and only a few inches above the ground. The flies appeared to
belong to a single species
as several were
caught for identification, and prove to be a species of Ilythe~ one of the efhydridae, and probably the European species I. spilota, as that is the only one recorded from this country. I shall be glad to know if such streams have before been observed among
efhydrtda e.
Samuel H. Scz~dder.
THE SUPPOSED BOT-FLY PARASITE OF THE
Box-Tu~~~~.--During the autumn of 1889
Mr. W. H. Ellhworth donated to the Mil-
waukee Public Museum a pair of box-turtles ( Cisfzulo carolincz), which were taken near ~indsor, Ct. They were kept alive during the winter in a terrarium, but the female died 5 April 1890. My friend, the talented taxidermist, Mr. C. E. Akeley, while skele- tonizing this specimen called my attention to a peculiar swelling in the animal's neck. Closer examination showed that the cutis close to the carapace and a little to the right of the median dorsal line, had been converted into a pocket about of an inch in diameter. This pocket opened on the surface by means ofa very small aperture and contained besides a quantity of suppurative matter, eight mag- gots wliich I at first took to be bot-fly larvae. Both their shapes and positions with refer- ence to the inner surface of the cavity which they had excavated reminded me of the
GastropJtiliis larvae so often exhibited in the shops of veterinary surgeons. Such of the larvae as had not been injured during the removal of the skin and flesh from the cer- vical vertebrae of the turtle, buried them- selves in the earth 14-15 April and pupated. The imagines made their appearance 27 May and proved to be not hot-flies at all, but a species of Sarco'phaga.
Prof. S. W. Williston has directed my
attention to the following note by Packard (American naturalist, 1882, v. 16, p.5~8) : "The museum of Brown University has
received specimens of a bot-fly maggot, of which eight or ten were taken, according to Prof. J. W. P. jenks, from under the skin of ' the back of the neck, close to the shell of the box-turtle (Cistz~do carolina). The turtle was collected at Middleboro, Mass." * * * * "It appears to be a genuine bot-fly, but quite unlike any genus figured by Bsauer in his work on the oestridae.
The body is long and slender, cylindrical, tapering so that each end is much alike. The segments are provided with numerous
fine spines, which are not entirely confined to the posterior half or two thirds of the seg- ment. The body is slender and the spines much smaller than in Gastrofhilns cpi."
A comparison of this account with my
observation given above leaves no doubt
that the larvae seen by Packard and myself are specifically identical. I have also coin- pared one of the maggots with Packard's
figure and description and can detect no differences. The error into which he has fallen is pardonable, inasmuch as the Sar- cofhaga larvae are microscopically so simi- lar to bot-fly maggots that any entomologist unaccustomed to the minute study of dipte- rous larvae would not hesitate to allocate them to the oesfridcze. Until the flies ap- peared. I was quite sure that I had found a bot-fly infestinga reptile. (See Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phil., 1887, p. 393-394;
1888. p. 128;
Science, 5 December 1884, v. 4, 13. 51 I.) It would seem to be a regular habit with this fly to infest CisfztcIo carolina. That the eggs of young larvae are laid on the living ' turtle there can be no doubt, but whether they are deposited in a sore, or on the una- braded skin of the nucha, as being a region inaccessible to the turtle's beak and claws, remains to be seen. ,
The four imagines which I succeeded in
rearing proved to be females and though the species appears not to have been described as yet, I would rather wait till male
speci-
mens can be secured, before attempting to add another member to the large and very difficult genus Sarrof'hag'a.
W. M. Tt7hee/er.




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