Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Article beginning on page 149.
Psyche 6:149, 1891.

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Sept. 1891.1 PS EBB. 149
The results obtained appear also to indi- cate that probably some local climatic vari- eties, and even seasonal varieties, may be found to be, in part at least, temperature forms of the individual ; and, looked at from this point of view they appear to me to lend some support to Lord Walsingham's theory as to the advantages derived by an insect in a cold region from being of a dark color, for they show that, if that is an advantage, it is one that can be acquired, not only by a race . .
for use in a cold locality, but by individuals for use in a cold season. I think it is quite clear that if a cool week supervened in south- ern England between the beginning and the middle of July, or a hot week in the middle of April, at either of which times many of the pupae of illustraria would be in what I have called the penultimate pupal stage, most of these insects which it found in that stage would have their coloring affected.
It would
appear that even two or three hot days, if they came exactly at the right period, would be enough for the purpose; and I need
hardly observe that it is very unlikely that these are the only species that would be so affected.
There is another general suggestion which I venture to make in concluding. If Prof. Weismann's theory is accepted, that the exist- ing forms of most European and some North American Lepidoptera have come to us from a glacial period or climate, and that icing the pupa cause& the insect to "throw back" to its earlier form, then experiments of the kind tried on the pupae might assist us in tracing the evolution of the markings on the wings of some of the most highly developed forms. In a postscript he adds :-
I am now able to add that the coloring of the spring emergence of illustraria is as much, or nearly as much, affected by temperature during the penultimate pupalperiod as is that of the summer emergence. This has been
established in case of three different broods, portions of each having been subjected to temperatures of 60å and 80å respectively; the latter often in coloring very closely approach the light chestnut-orange summer type. This is interesting in reference to Prof. Weis- mann'-s theory, that in cases of this kind, the moth from the summer pupa can be caused
to resemble that from the winter pupa, but not vice versa, as it shows that either form is equally ready, on the suitable temperature stimulus being applied, to assume the char- acteristic appearance of the other, so far as coloring- is concerned. In other respects my observations are in accord with that theory. Thus, I have never been able to cause the moth from the winter pupa to take the mark- ings proper to the moth from the summer
pupa, whereas the moth from the summer
pupa can be made in
markings to resemble
almost exactly that from the winter pupa; nor have I been able to cause the moth from the winter pupa to emerge in a period
approaching in brevity that of the summer pupa; indeed, in the great majority of cases, the early and continued exposure of the win- ter pupa to a temperature of 80å¡ or even 60å¡ caused its death.
SOME ABNORMAL LARVAE.-~~~ larva of
Tkyrezis abbotii had a single, thick, stiff hairlike bristle, arising from the tip of the caudal tubercle, all through the third moult, the second and fourth moults being normal. Another larva of T. abboiii kept the
whitish green coloring of the early moults until it pupated, the only change of marking being a vague lateral line slightly darker than the body, and the usual changes of anal tubercle. Caroline G. Soule.
ANOTHER DEIDAMIA INSCRIPTA.-On July
13th on Amfielo-fisis veitchii, I found a larva so like Everyx Wyt'072 that I put it away as such, though it had no purplish spots on the back. It differed from last year's specimen in having faint yellow obliques, and in hav- ing the yellow lines from the head extending nearly to the eleventh segment. The pupa, formed on July ~yth, was like that of last year, except that it lacked the spur near the



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PSYCHE.
[September 1891.
tip of the anal hook, and was slightly larger, especially around the abdomen. The dates of finding this larva and of its pupation were the same with that of last year, and the place was within a foot of the spot where last year's larva was found ! Caroline G. Sonle. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. - With the me-
thodical precision which marks the work
of the entomologists of the Austrian capital, Redtenbacher, in the 2d part of the Ver- handlungen of the zoological-botanical
society of Vienna for 1891, gives a mono- graph of the locustarian subfamily Conoce- phalinae which extends to nearly 250 pp. and is accompanied by two excellent folding
plates. Redtenbacher divides the group into four tribes : Conocephalini with 25 genera and 166 species (3 genera and 12 species from the United States) ; Agroeciini with 30 genera and 94 species; Xiphidiini with 3 genera and 68 species (I genus and 17
species from the United States); and List- roscelini with 6 genera and 35 species.
Conocephalus alone has 101. species and
Xiphidium (including Orchelimum, separ-
ated only as a subgenus) 66 species; the only United States species not contained in Conocephalus (7 sp.) and Xiphidium (17 sp.) are Beloce$hzlus suba$terns Scudd. and
Pyrgocoryfiliu zmcinata (Conocefhalns
uncinatus Harr.).
At the July meeting of the Enton~ological society of London, it was stated by Dr. T. A. Chapman, an excellent observer, that the larva of Micropteryx, one of the lower Lepi- doptera, possesses on each of the eight
abdominal segments "a pair of minute jointed legs of the same type as the thoracic. There are also a pair of long jointed antennae." To an interesting and very thorough de-
scription of an hermaphroditic spider, Bert- kau appends a catalogue of recent cases and states that 361 hermaphroditic Arthropods are now known, of which 9 are Crustacea, 3 Arachnids, and 349 insects, divided as fol- lows : 2 Orthoptera, 11 Diptera, 267 Lepi- doptera, 59 Hymenoptera, and 10 Coleop-
tera. In 165 cases where the separation is lateral, 85 are males on the right side, 71 on the left, leaving 9 uncertain.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
14 March, 1890.-The 152d meeting was
held at 156 Brattle St.
Mr. S. Henshaw was
chosen chairman.
Mr. S. H. Scudder exhibited illustrations showing the work done by- beetles in the staves of the Ottawa water works, described in a letter from Mr. James Fletcher, read at the last meeting.
Mr. Scudder stated that he had completed his work on Fossil insects of the West,
planned for Hayden's Survey some fifteen years ago. It contains descriptions of some 612 species.
He further showed a tintype of
carboniferous cockroaches from the coal de- posits of Rhode Island. They were nearly all of them collected near Silver Spring, a suburb of Providence.
11 April, 1890.-The 153d meeting of the
Club was held at 156 Brattle St., Mr. S. Heti- shaw in the chair.
Mr. Henshaw read a letter from Mr. Elli- son A. Smyth, Jr., on some southern Lepidop- tei-a. In this article mention was made of the capture of two specimens of ,Neotlym$ha canthiis near Charleston, S. C. (See Psyche, 1890, v. 5, p. 348.) A short discussion fol- lowed on some of our spring butterflies. Mr. S. H. Scudder exhibited specimens of some Gryllidae recently received from a cor- respondent in Spain, of the genus Platy- blemmus,
in which the front of
the head is
prolonged and dilated into a flat plate, re- sembling somewhat the clypeus of some
Scarabaeidae.
Mr. Scudder recorded the occurrence of
Pteromalus as parasitic on Jasoniades glau- cus, Euphoeudes troilus, Pafilio polyxenes, and Elfphydryas phaeton. He a150 read a
letter from Mr. James Fletcher, .in which was noted the occurrence of several specimens of Brebia discoidalis at Sudbury, Ont.




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