Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Article beginning on page 176.
Psyche 6:176, 1891.

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p.5' m. [November 1891.
A PARASITE OF THE FALL WEB-WORM.
BY C. Hi TYLER TOWNSEND, LAS CRUCES, N. M. In this vicinity the cottonwoods
(Po$uIzts fremodei) begin to be in-
fested with the Fall Web-worm (Hy-
phantria cunea) about the first of July. On July 28 I placed an entire nest of
good-sized web-worms in a breeding
cage. Aug. 19 quite a number of
moths had emerged, and one specimen
of the Tachinid parasite described
below. The earth was full of the web-
worm cocoons and pupae, only a few
stray ones having been formed in the
leaves and twigs. The moth is the
pure, snow-white form, with the thighs
yellowish. Aug. 25 three more speci-
mens of the Tachinid were secured.
The following is a description of the
latter.
Meigenia hyphantriae n. sp. f .
Silvery-
cinereous, and black.
Eyes dark brown, ex-
tending not quite so low as the vibrissae, thinly hairy on lower portions; front at vertex about one-third the width of head, a little wider at base of antennae, somewhat prominent, silvery on sides with a cinereous shade; frontal vitta narrow, not one-fifth the width of front, dark brown, the prongs on sides of ocelli rather faint, ochreous ; frontal bristles moderately strong, three posterior ones inclined backward, others inward,
decussate except the divergent lower ones which extend as far down as base of third antenna1 joint; two orbital bristles on each side ; face and cheeks silvery, face strongly receding, facial depression rather wide, facial ridges bristly for some distance above the vibriasae which are decussate and in- serted considerably above the oral margin ; sides of face moderately wide, bare; cheeks moderately narrow, bare, except bristles on lower border; antennae a little shorter
than face, first two joints rufous, first joint very short, second slightly elongate, third narrow, black, rufous at base, about three times as long as the second; arista black, microscopically pubescent, rather long,
thickened for one-third its length, apparently 2-jointed, the second joint short; proboscis rufous, but little extended, fleshy, apparently very short, labella large, flavous or rufous ; palpi well developed, slender, nearly cylin- drical, flavous or rufous, black hairy; occiput gray or cinereous, with whitish hair, except a wide black vitta from vertex to center, orbital margins fringed with black bristles. Thorax narrower than head and abdomen,
widest in front, silvery, shaded with cinere- ous above, with two narrow well-defined
black vittae and a lateral interrupted one, bristly and hairy; scutellum cinereous, with an apical very short, weak, decussate pair of bristles, a sub-apical decussate pair of macro- chaetae extending to base of third abdominal segment, two lateral and a discal pair of macrochaetae; humeri and pleurae silvery, bristly. Abdomen rather conical in outline, short, stout, first segment a little shortened, macrochaetae only marginal ; first segment black, without macrochaetae ; second and third broadly silvery at base, blackish on posterior border; second with a median pair of rnacrochaetae, and a single lateral one; third with eight macrochaetae; anal more yellowish at base, armed with macrochaetae and bristles above and below.
Legs black,
coxae and femora silvery, tibiae slightly so,fernora and tibiae bristly, hind tibiae with a fringe of bristles on outer edge; claws and pulvilli a little elongate. Wing's rather broad, longer than the abdomen, without




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November 1891, ] PS2THE. 177
costal spine, grayish-hyaline, opaque gray at base ; apical cell very narrowly open at some distance before the apex of the wing; fourth vein bent at an angle without stump or
wrinkle, the bend not sharp, apical cross- vein a little concave ; hind cross-vein curved, nearer to bend of fourth vein; third vein spined at base; tegulae white, halteres yel- lowish gray.
2.
Differs as follows : Front nearly one-
half the width of head ; frontal vitta broad, occupying one-third of frontal width ; three orbital bristles (on one side, on the
other
side only two) ; eyes more distinctly hairy, especially' on upper portions; claws and pulvilli hardly shorter.
Length of $ 6 mm. ; wing 5; mm.
9
7 mm. ; wing 6 mm.
Described from three 8 specimens,
and one 9 , bred from chrvsalids of
Hyj6hantria cunea, Las Cruces, New
Mexico. This species is best located in
Meigenia. The face, however, is not
almost perpendicular, the abdomen is
short and stout, and the macrochaetae
are only marginal unless on the anal
segment. It cannot be referred to
Mystacella, which has the eyes more
decidedly hairy.
Note on Phorocera -firomisczw Towns.
Psyche, v. 6,84. This species was wrongly referred to Phorocera, my reason for the ref- erence being that the facial ridges are bristly for fully half their extent. But the eyes are very indistinctly hairy, the species agreeing in this and its other characters with Mei- genia.
It will be best, I believe, to refer to
it as Meiyenia -tromiscua Towns.
NOTES ON BOMBYCID LARVAE.-111.
BY HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK, N. Y.
SCHIZURA EXIMIA Grote.
1882.
Oedemasia eximia Grt., Bull. U. S.
geol. &. geog. SUI-v. ten:, Hayden, 6, 275. 1891.
Thaxter, Can. ent., XXIII, 34.
I have for some time considered this spe- cies improperly referred to Oedemasia, but I have never found the larva. Dr. Thaxter, however, has bred it, and writes me as fol- lows : " Oedemasia eximia resembles Coelo- dasys Zeftinoides* in coloring, but structur- ally is perhaps more like biguttatus {iio- ffieae). When at rest it is greatly hunched anteriorly, and the furcate prominence on segm. 4 is very long. I should say it was surely a Coelodasys" (=Schizura) .
I would place it next to 5. leptinoides and near lanassa.
SCHIZURA BADIA Packard.
1864. Oedemasia badia Pack., Proc. ent.
soc. Phil., 111, 361.
*Described in Ent. amer., vol. 6, p. 230. Larva. I have found this larva on Vibur- num. Wago, and it is certainly not an Oede- masfa. It is without the red hump and black tubercules of 0. concinna, the body being smooth, with dorsal processes on the ist, 4th, and 8th abdominal segments; the sides * of the thoracic segments are green, but the usual V-shaped mark is, I believe, absent. I have not been able to obtain the larva re- cently for more careful description.
OEDEMASIA SALICIS Hy. Edw.
1876. Heterocam'pa salicis Hy. Edw . ,
Proc. Cal. acad. sci., VII, 121.
Larva. Third stage. Head black, with a
few short hairs; cervical shield bisected, black, as is the anal plate. Body yellow, with short pale hairs growing from black tubercles; joint 5 has a slight dorsal hump somewhat orange tinted, and with four
smooth black tubercles, these being part of a



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