Article beginning on page 142.
Psyche 6:142-144, 1891.
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142 PSYCHE. [September 1891,
HEMARIS DIFFINIS : FROM LARVAE SENT FROM MISSOURI. BY IDA M. ELIOT AND CAROLINE G. SOULE.
May 30. The larvae arrived and
were moulting for the second time,
Length 5-8 inch.
Head pale green, round,
with a deep median suture, and three glau- cous spots on the sutures; granulated with white. Body pale green dorsally, darker on the sides ; venter with three brown longitu- dinal lines; thickly granulated with white. 1st segment crowned with a transverse,
double row of bright yellow, raised granules, which projected over the head, giving it a retracted look. This segment was bluer
green than the others. Feet and props
almost white barred with dark brown. Cau- dal horn long, slender, rough, bright yellow at the sides of the base, blue-blackelsewhere. Anal shield slightly yellow at tip. Spiracles deep blue black, ringed with pale blue. No obliques.
June2, yd moult.-Length I 1-8 inches.
Head clear blue-green, granulated with
white. Mouth-parts blue-black. Body: 1st segment blue-green, crowned with trans-
verse, double row of yellow granules, de- pressed on dorsal line. Other segments
white-green dorsallv, very yellow-green
laterally, and with the venter red-brown, with two longitudinal stripes of dark brown which included the base of props and feet. The body was thickly granulated with white, yellower on the sides. Feet and props
brown, barred with darker brown. Caudal
horn long, slender, straight, sharp, rough, bright yellow at sides of base, blue-black elsewhere. Anal shield with a faint yellow tip. Spiracles deep blue-black, with a white dot in the black at top and bottom; a pale blue ring encircled the whole. No obliques. June 9, 4th moult.-Like the third, except in size. Length, I 1-2 to I 3-4 inches, vary- ing in individuals.
June 1'5. Stopped eating, and the
dorsum and head turned almost purple.
Spun light cocoons, fastening leaves to
the tin.
June 16. Pupated.
Pea I 1-8 inches long, sn~ooth, slender, with the head very pointed, and anal tip very short and rough. In some specimens
the tongue-case was hardly to be seen, in others was a flat ridge extending just beyond the apex of the wings. In color the pupae were of a dark brown, much lighter between the segments, and almost black on the head, thorax and wings.
They were the most active pupae we
have ever seen.
One pupa had not
given the imago up to Aug. 8, 1891,
although very lively, rolling from one , end of the box to the other whenever
the box was jarred.
The larvae had been fed on Sym-
@oricar$us racemoms until they
reached us, but ate Lonicera tarta&ca
and L. j'afonica, and were fed chiefly
on the former.
They had one unusual peculiarity :
The slender part of the caudal horn
was easily rubbed 'off, more than half
the larvae losing it at some stage, and
regaining it at the next moult, or losing it entirely during the stage before pupa- tion.
The first moth, f , emerged July 4,
a second f emerged July 6, and a 9
somewhat later in the day, but before
noon.
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September 1991 .] , p6'KH.. . 143
There were no signs of mating until
the box was put into strong sunlight,
when in less than five minutes the pair
were in coitu, and so remained for
about two hours.
Our moths differed somewhat from
those described by Mr. Fernald in his
^ Sphingidae of New England."
The $ had the top of the head, thorax,
and first two abdominal segments of a bright green-almost parrot-green-the dorsal line being a trifle browner, and the sides of the abdominal segments a little yellower. The next two segments of the abdomen were
almost orange, the second browner on the dorsum, and the first having a brown dorsal line. Both these segments were edged pos- teriorly with dark brown. The rest of the abdomen was dark brown, and ended in
heavy anal tufts, those on the sides being black, that in the middle yellow-brown.
On the sides of the first two abdominal
segments, and on the dorsum of the second were small tufts of blue hairs. The upper part of the palpi, the sides of the thorax, the legs and the underpart of the abdomen were black. The under part of the palpi, the first joint of forelegs, and the sides of the thorax just beneath the base of the wings were
bright canary yellow, as was a spot between the second pair of legs. On the yellow
abdominal segments there was a broad black ventral band.
When freshly emerged the transparent
parts of the wings were covered with black scales thickly enough to look almost as
opaque as the dark border, but these scales quickly rubbed off as the moths moved about. The forewings had a brown costal band, a much wider band on the outer margin, with a rust-colored spot near the apex and a brown patch at the base of the wings, continuing as a band along the hinder edge. Veins dark brown. When freshly emerged there was a
patch of green hairs overlapping the base of the wings, but these soon rubbed off. The hind wings were edged with rusty brown, the band being widest on the inner border.
Veins rusty brown. All these brown bands were opaque, and the transparent parts of the wings were irridescent in the light. Legs black, irridescent in the light. Antennae wide, club shaped, with a little spine at the apex, rusty black, serrate on the two edges.
The $ differed in having no blue tufts on the abdomen ; smaller antennae, which were not at all serrate; smaller anal tufts; and yellow, instead of orange, on the abdominal segments. The brown dorsal line on these segments was wider than on those of the 3. The moths were very quiet unless
into the sunlight when they at once
began to fly about almost incessantly.
Sugar and water were put on the net-
ting over the box, but I am not sure
that they fed at all.
The 9 began to lay her eggs at about
9.30 A.M., July 7th. The eggs were
small, oval, bright green. Sixty eggs
were laid the first day, and became
slightly depressed on the next day.
The moth would lay fifteen or twenty
eggs, making a great noise and fuss
over them, and then
would seem ex-
hausted, and rest for a long time before laying more.
Sixty-one eggs were laid on the sec-
ond day. Forty-three eggs were laid
on the third day. Forty-four were laid
on the fourth day and the $ died
before noon, having laid 208 eggs.
July 14, at I P.M., the
eggs began to
hatch, having turned yellow two days
before.
Young larva 1-8 inch long, pale yellow,
tapering from the large, round head to the
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PSYCHE.
[September 1891.
anal segment.
The body was covered with
short white-or colorless-hairs, and the feet and props were of the body color. The
mouth-parts were pink; the anterior edge of the first segment overlapped the head, and was whiter than the head or the body. The caudal horn was yellow at first, then gray, then black. It was straight, stout, blunt and rather long in proportion to the body. It had one hair arising from its tip. There was a substigmatal ridge, whiter than the body, from head to tip of anal shield.
The larvae did not eat any part of the,
eggshell, but at once went to the leaves provided for them and began to eat.
This is unusual in our experience of
newly-hatched larvae, most kinds not
beginning to feed until at least twelve
hours from th.e egg, though they all
drink greedily. After eating the larvae
became glassy green, with yellow head,
anal segment, feet, props, and substig-
matal ridge.
July 17. 1st moult,-1-4 inch long. Head
small, yellow.
Body above green, covered
with short hairs seen only with a lens;
beneath almost purple. First segment with a dorsal crest of yellow granules depressed on dorsal line. Caudal horn blue-black, long, slender, rough, yellow at sides of base. Feet, props, and spiracles blue-black.
July 20.
2d moult.-Length 1-2 inch+.
Head green. First segment greener than the others, and crested as before, both head and 1st segment being granulated with white. Substigmatal ridge yellower. All else as before.
July 23. 3d moult.-I 1-8 inches in length. Head and 1st segment greener than the rest of body and of a blue-green. Body finely granulated with white. Dorsum very white- green ; sides very yellow-green ; venter almost black. Feet, props, and spiracles blue-black, the latter set in rings of pale blue. Caudal horn as before. Crest on 1st segment as before.
Nine larvae came out of a clear, soft
chocolate brown, with the first segment
browner, and crested with yellow gran-
ules ; the base of the caudal horn yellow on its sides ; spiracles, feet, and props. blue-black. There was no difference
of color between dorsum and sides, as
in the green larvae. They were as
vigorous and ate as voraciously as the
green ones. One was yellow on dor-
sum and brown elsewhere.
Two others were pale brown on dor-
sum, dark brown on sides, and had
black heads. The substigmatal ridge
was lost at this moult.
July 27. 4th moult.-Head as before.
Venter red-brown with a dark stripe on each side, in which the feet and props were set. Dorsum and sides as before. Feet nearly
black with a white bar across the outer side. Props brown barred with darker brown.
Spiracles blue-black, each with a whit.e dot in the black at each end, and set in a ring of pale blue. Horn as before.
They varied somewhat in the ventral
marks, some having the tan-colored median stripe extend from head to anal props,
others from 5th segment to anal props, the first five segments being almost black.
The dark larvae came out with the head
black, not shining. Body deep chocolate
brown granulated with white, and lighter on the dorsum. First segment and anal shield and props bright orange granulated with yel- low. Feet and props dark brown. Venter
tan-colored, with an almost black stripe on each side. Horn yellow at the sides of its base, blue-black the rest of the way, and rough.
August 2d they measured from I 3-4
to 2 inches in length, and the first ones
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September 1891. ]
PSYCHE.
turned purplish on head and dorsuim,
stopped eating, and began wandering
about the tin for a place to spin. The
brown ones turned duller in color.
Aug. 3.
They had spun slight co-
coons.
Aug. 7. They pupated.
This account gives the dates of
moults, spinning and pupation of the
larvae first hatched. The others were
later in all their changes, and the last hatched did not grow
so large or so
rapidly as the first.
These larvae were very voracious,
and ate even the berries of the Lonicera and the stems down to the woody twig.
They required food-supply three times
a day, after the fourth moult, although
the tins were large and but thirteen
larvae were kept in one tin.
They were very placid, slow, easy-
going larvae, bore any amount of hand-
ling, and were crawled over by each
other without any of the petulant
twitching and biting always shown,
under such circun~stances, by larvae of
juglandis. astylus, abbotii, and other
Sphingidae.
Out of the I 20 larvae we undertook
to rear only two died, and those two
were from the last eggs laid and died in moulting.
NOTES ON BOMBYCID LARVAE.-11.
BY HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK, N. Y.
ORGYIA DEFINITA Packard. (For refer-
ences, see above, p. in ; to which add :) 1890. Leifert, 5th rep. U. S. ent. comm. p. 561.
First larval stage. Head pale testaceous, darker on the vertex; ocelli black, mouth brown ; width 0.5 mm. Body pale whitish, the subdorsal warts on joint 2 larger than the rest, the dorsal warts blackish. Hair long, pale whitish. There are no pencils nor
brush-tufts of hair and no retractile tuber- cles on joints 10 and 11. As the stage ad- vances all the warts become dark.
TORTRICIDIA FLAVULA *rich-Sclifffer.
1854. Herr.-Sch., Sam. ausser. schmett., fig. 185.
Matzwe larva. By its shape allied to the larva of Lithacodes fasciola H.-S.
Head re-
tracted beneath joint 2, which is in turn re- tracted beneath joint 3 ; greenish testaceous, mouth parts brown, ocelli black. Body el- liptical, the sides sloping from a slight sub- dorsal ridge, and contracted between joints 12 and 13, giving the last segment a square appearance. Bright green, the dorsum
largely covered by a patch of salmon color or purple brown bordered with a crimson
line and a yellow shade. It begins somewhat broadly above the head on joint 3, narrows at once to a dorsal band on joints 4 and 5, widens twice, the second time passing down to the subventral edge of the body at joint 8, then narrows twice (this part of the outline varies in different examples), and tapers to a point at the anal extremity. The body is covered very minutely with translucent gran- ulations, the usual elliptical depressions hardly distinct, smooth, whitish in the dorsal patch, and containing a dorsal and lateral row of blackish spots.
Length 9 mm.
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