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Psyche 6:145-146, 1891.

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September 1891 .] PSYCHE. 145
turned purplish on head and dorsum,
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 Lonicere 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 circumstances, by larvae of
juglandis, asfylus, abbotii, and other
Sphingidae.
Out of the 120 larvae we undertook
to rear only two died, and those two
were from the last eggs laid and died in moulting.
BROOKLINE, MASS. Any. 8, 1891.
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 Herrich-.Schajfer.
1854. Herr.-Sch., Sam. ausser. schmett., fig. 185.
Mature larva. By its shape allied to the larva of Litkacodes fasciola H.4.
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 j, 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 g mm.




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146 PSYCHE. [September 1891,
The cocoon and pupa do not differ from
those of all the other Cochlidiae.
Food'plants. Deciduous trees.
I have bred from these larvae four moths which are alike, and correspond with Her- rich-Schaffer's figure. Under a glass there can be distinguished a few brown scales rep- resenting the usual lines. In the Elliot col- lection, now in the American Museum of
Natural History, is a fine series of a Tor- tricidia which represents both T.flavula and 2'. Yallida, with a number of examples that appear to connect the two.
In T. $allida the
lines are present very much as in Limacodes flextiosa Grt.,* but the inner one is somewhat curved as Herrich-Schaffer figures it. T. $allida can be distinguished from L.flexnosa by the pale, flesh-color shading that is seen to overspread the basal half of primaries in certain lights, while in L. flexiiosa the wings are uniformly ochreous. The two species are closely related however.
APATELODES TORREFACTA Abbot & Smith.
1797.
A. & S., Lep. Ins. Ga., tab. 76.
1889. Soule, Psyche, V, 148.
1890.
Packard, Proc. Boat, soc. nat. hist.
XXIV, 519.
More observations are needed to determine the number of larval stages of this species. Miss Soule finds five stages, and Dr. Packard has recorded six, but it is almost certain that both have found too few, and, as no measure- ments of the head are given, it is impossible to tell where the error is.
I obtained the larva on July 30, apparently about half grown. It molted four times, and the measurements of the head for the five stages whichlI observed were as follows :- 1.3 mm,, 1.6 mm., 2.1 mm., 2.6 mm.,3.2
mm.
These correspond very well with the series derived with the ratio .80 by calculation from the last stage. But, if there are only six stages, the newly-hatched larva would have * I have elsewhere called attention to the probable synonymy of this species.
a head 1.05 mm. wide, which would be very unusual for a larva as small as this. Of the species which I have recorded in Psyche, vol. 5, p. 420, et sea., the only larva hatch- ing with a head this size is Platysamia cecro- fla, which is, of course, a very much larger insect. If we calculate the series further back, say to ten terms, we have the following result :-
0.42, 0.53, 0.66, 0.83, 1.05, 1.31, 1-64, 2.05, 2.56, 3-20.
In my opinion, 0.83 mm. or 0.66 mm. would be about right for this larva in the first stage, and hence I conclude Atatelodes torrefacta has as many as seven or eight stages.*
I shall be much interested to have this
verified or disproved, which can be easily done by any one who can determine the
width of the head of the newly-hatched larva from a living or an alcoholic specimen.
GLUPHISIA TRILINEATA Packard.
1864- Pack., Proc. ent. soc. Phil., 111, 355-
1883.
Edwards & Elliot, Papilio, 111, 129.
The larva of this species has been briefly described in its last stage by Edwards & EI- liott. It is not uncommon on poplar in
Dutchess
and Ulster counties, N. Y., often
associated with Ra$kiafrater, which it much resembles in general structure, though it is more slender. It is unusually plainly marked and inconspicuous for a Ptilodontid larva ; the anal feet are used for walking, and the body is smooth, without tubercles or proces- ses. The eggs are shaped like the upper
third of a sphere, flat on the under side. Their color is pale yellowish green, very minutely and densely punctured. Diameter about 0.9 mm. They are probably laid singly. I believe there are five larval stages, though I have not observed the first. The second, third and fourth are so much like the fifth *If the width of the newly hatched larva is about one half the width of the egg, as seems in general to be the case, then 0.66 mm. would be right and the species would have eight stages.




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September 1891 .] PSYCHE.
as described by Edwards & Elliot, that I will not re-describe them. When young the
larvae each rest on a little web on the under side of a leaf, the head held out quite flat. The mature larva is thickest at joint 9, and tapers slightly to the extremities. Beside the yellow subdorsal band mentioned by the describers there is a fainter white substigma- tal one on joints 2-4.
The widths of head for the five stages, calcu- lated and actually found, are as follows :- Calculated.-0.48, 0.74, 1.14, 1.75, 2.7 mm. Ratio, 0.65.
Found.-0.7, 1.2, 1.7, 2.7 mm.
The cocoon is formed of few threads, at
the ground. The pupa is very dark brown, almost black; flattened on the ventral side, the dorsum evenly rounded; finely punc-
tured. The abdominal segments are closely appressed, motionless ; cremaster none, anal segments evenly rounded. Length 10 mm.,
width 4.5 mm.
There are two broods each year, and the
winter is passed in the pupal stage.
Hubn., Noct. 440.
Herr-Sch., Syst. bearb. sch. Eur. fig. 131. 1871. Staudinger, Cat. Lep. Europ. (Note.) This larva has not such an abnormal de-
velopment as I have supposed.
I have re-
calculated the series for the widths of head, and find the following much better than the one I gave in Psyche, v 5, p. 421, viz. :- Calculated.-0.61, 0.85, 1.19, 1.66, 2.30, 3.2. Ratio, .72.
Found.-0.4, 0.7, 1.3, 1.7, 2.3, 3.2 mm.
This fits the observed facts except in regard to the first two stages, and I may have
measured them too small. All the measure- ments were taken from living larvae, and hence are liable to some discrepancy.
The species has six larval stages, which is abnormal among the Ptilodontes if we ex- cept Ichtkyura inchsa,$ which seems to have also six stages, and the species of Apatelodes and Nadafa, which probably have even
more.
THE NEW CATALOGUE OF EURO-
PEAN COLEOPTERA."
This is in every way the most elaborate
and important edition (No. iv) of the Cata- logue of the European Coleoptera yet pub- lished. It is on a somewhat new plan. The family arrangement is that usually followed in Europe. The sequence of the genera and species is that adopted by some monogra- pher of the family, or genus, usually the latest, reference to whose work is made
under the title. The name of the species, with the principal synonyms, and the author- ities for their creation,with other useful biblio- graphical references follow, as well as indi- cations of geographical distribution within the faunal limits laid down. In the preface it is stated that the work was parcelled out to Mr. L. Ganglbauer, Dr. L. v. Heyden, Dr. -
* Catalogus Coleopterorum Europae, Caucasi et Ar- meniae Rossicae. Edited by Edmund Reitter. Ber- lin, Modling, Caen. 1891.
f I have erroneously referred to this species in Psyche, v. 5, p. 421, as E. albifrons S. & A. All the specimens which have occurred to me at Rhine- beck, N. Y., have been E. albicosta, as I have recently discovered. The species may readily be separated by the character of the projecting tooth of the white costal band, which in albifrons is regularly rounded, but in albicosta is sharply pointed or dentate. I strongly
suspect that the larvae described by Mr. Beutenmtiller in Ent. Amer. vol. 6, p. 75, and by Dr. Packard in Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist. vol. 24, p. 525, as E. albifrons, are really those of E. albicosta.
t Prof. French finds six stages for 7. palla f:=i~- clusa) in Can. ent., v. 17, p. 42, and I have measure- ments which, as far as they go, corroborate him.



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