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Psyche 6:31, 1891.
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February 1891.3 P S ~ ~ . 31
the whole side gray tinged and the borders of the dorsal stripe of clear color outlined by gray touches; a dorsal line of clearer color indicated on the anterior joints; between joints 3 and 4 and between 4 and 5 on the dorsum a yellow transverse stripe that is hid when the larva is at rest; the head is less distinctly marked than at the other stage; the lateral fringe pink tinted. The dorsal stripe is more of a distinct red than the gen- eral ground color.
An interesting parasite was bred in
this stage from one of these larvae, but at the time of writing it is misplaced
so that I can not now say what it is. Its manner of pupation was as follows :
When ready to spin its cocoon it burst
open the under side of the host so that
the skin of the dead H.eteropacha larva
formed a cover for the upper side of the cocoon. The ends of the dead larva
were shrunken, but the middle where
used as a cover for the cocoon was three times as broad across as the living larva had been. The pupal period of the para-
site was 8 days, from May 20 to May 28.
Last stage-Length, 1.05 inches. Striped
with 7 yellow stripes, a dorsal, subdorsal, suprastigmatal, and substigmatal, the first two quite dark almost orange, the other two paler and much narrower. The space be-
tween the dorsal and subdorsal black; a white patch between the joints breaks the subdorsal stripe and extends almost to the dorsal. Sides gray. Venter pale yellow, dull, a black patch to each joint. Head black, a short transverse buff streak in front; top of joint 2 black; short hair all over the body but not enough to very much obscure the colors, the hair on the upper part of the body mostly black but that along the sides above the legs gray.
The pupal period of the moth was 15
days, from May 22 to June 6. This
was the period of the first one that
pupated. Several others were raised
but their periods were not noted. They
continued to hatch to July 17, some
being in the larva state when the first
one emerged as an imago.
SMERINTHUS ASTYLUS.-A brood of twen-
ty-four raised this past season, showed some variations from those of last year.
Eggs laid July 29th and 30th.
Hatched-Aug. 8th.
1st moult-Aug 16th.
2nd moult-Aug. 22d.
3rd moult-Aug. 29th.
4th moult-Sept. 5th.
Most stopped eating Sept. 14th, and pupa- ted Sept. 18th to 30th, varying much in
length of time required for this change. All these periods were shorter in 1890 than in 1889, except that between 2nd and 3rd
moults. But three of the larvae kept on
feeding till Oct. 15th-one dying just before that date. There was much greater variation in color in this brood. Twenty were much more marked with red than those of last year, while four had no red, even on the caudal horn! Three of these four were the three which continued feeding after the others had pupated. Every one lost the "bifid tip" of the caudal horn so that, in the last stage, no one could imagine that it had ever been
bifid. Ida M. Eliot, Caroline G. Soule.
PROTHORACIC WINGS.-M. Charles Brongn-
iart of Paris has just published in the Bul- letin of the Sociit6 philomathique two plates representing three insects, differing consid- erably in structure, found in the rich carbon- iferous beds of Cornmentry, France, two of which show, besides fully developed meso- Ps\&e 6 03 1-12 (pre.1901). hfp //psyche aitclub org/#6-0011.html
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32 PSYCHE. [February 1891.
thoracic and metathoracic wings, a pair of prothoracic wings, bearing much the same relation to the others as the mesothoracic tegmina of tropical Phasmidae bear to their metathoracic wings. They are short subtri- angular lobes having a well defined basis which is narrower, sometimes much nar-
rower, than the parts beyond, and from which course three or four radiating nervules. Al- though on these individuals these parts
spread laterally like the wings behind them, and are sometimes so broad at base as to ap- pear at first sight rather as lateral lobes of ,
the prothorax (especially in an English car- boniferous insect described by Woodward, which Brongniart also places here) M.
Brongniart believes that they were movable and could be extended backward along the body, so as to cover the base of the mesotho- racic wings. As to the question which nat- in-ally arises, whether these members are to be regarded as atrophied organs and therefore presuppose a progenitor equipped with three pair> of fully developed and similar thoracic wings, M. Brongniart prefers to wait for fur- ther paleontological facts.
One recalls in
this connection the discussion between Haase and Cholodkovsky in the Zoologischer an- zeiger, Nos. 23 j, 239 and 244.
A HINT FROM EMBRYOLOGY.-Mr. Wm.
M. Wheeler has enriched entomology by a
very interesting and suggestive paper on the appendages of the first abdominal seg- ment in insect embryos (Trans. Wisc. acad. sci,, v. 3, pp. 87-140, pi. 1-31. Besides his own observations on Phyllodromia, Peri-
planeta, Mantis, Xiphidium, Cicada, Zaitha and Sialis, he gives a rdsume of the observa- tions of others and discusses the probable origina1:function of these appendages among the ancestral insects when they must have extended to postembryonal life. Showing
that in view of their origin from the ectoderm they must have been either respiratory or- gans, sense organs, or glands, he reviews the arguments for each hypothesis pro and con and concludes in favor of the last; he is fur- ther inclined to regard them as having
probably been odoriferous glands and his ingenious arguments in favor of this view will be found of interest to all entomologists. He proposes for these organs, which he notes to have been found only in the Heterometab- oh, the name of Adenopodia, a name which demands the acceptance of the glandular hy- pothesis.
Considering the variety that he
shows has already been found in the nature of the adenopodia, a fruitful field of investi- gation is opened, in which there is plenty of room for many workers.
KOLBE'S INTRODUCTION to the study of
insects is slow in publication.
Begun early
in 1889, it was to be completed in six or seven small monthly parts. The fifth part has just appeared and the second of the twelve divi- sions of the book is'not half finished, so much more extensive is our author's performance than his promise. The present part (pp. 225- 272) deals with the mouth-parts of the suck- ing insects and the structure'of the wings. In the former, under the bibliography of the Lepidoptera, we miss reference of any kind to either of Edward Burgess's papers, the most important ever published. In the latter there is no reference to Saussure's paper on the folding of the wings of cockroaches, but there will be found a good account of Adolfs views. There are 23 wood-cuts in the text of this part, mostly original.
DR. ANTON FRITSCH of Prag, has recently
described in Vesmir, a popular Bohemian
journal of natural history,the case of a caddis fly from the permian formation, and it may be regarded as the oldest indication of the Phryganidae yet brought to light.
EGGS OF LYCAENIDAE-Dohesty of Cincin-
nati has carried the study of the eggs of eastern Lycaeninae so far as to propose, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1889, four divisions to the Theclini, based principally upon characteristics drawn from
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