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Psyche 6:201-202, 1891.

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Psyche, 1892, Vol. 6
Plate*.
I




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THE LIFE HISTORY OF SPALGIS S-SIGNATA HOLL. BY W. J. HOLLAND, PH.D., PITTSBURGH, PENN. In November of last year I published
in Psyche, vol. 5, p. 426, a description of a new species of Spalgis Moore, from
Kangwe, upon the Ogov4 River, West
Africa, and gave to it the specific name s-sigrzata.
I have recently received the larva and
chrysalis of the insect, accompanied by
a note from the collector, Rev. A. C.
Good, Ph.D., which shows that we are
dealing with a species, which is in its
habits closely related to our own Feni-
seca tarquinius Fabr. The creature is
aphidivorous in its larval state, as Mr. Good shows. We thus have knowl-
edge of four species of Lycaenidae, the
caterpillars of which are characterized
by carnivorous propensities. They are
Feniseca tarquinius Fabr.,
Spalgis epius Westwood,
Liphyra brassolis Westwood,
Spalgis s-signata Holland.
The life history of Feniseca tarquin-
ius has been thoroughly worked out by
Miss Emily Morton and Mr. W. H.
Edwards. The life history of Spalgis
epius, as given by Mr. E. E. Green, of
Pundul-oya, Ceylon, and incorporated
in vol. 2 of the "Butterflies of India,
Burmah, and Ceylon," by De Nichville,
finds confirmation in the discovery of
Rev. Mr. Good. Mr. Green calls
attention in loc. cit. to the fact that
there must have been an error made in
assigning to S. epius the larva and chry- salis which are attributed to that species in Mr. Moore's great work upon the
Lepidoptera of Ceylon. That the larva
of Liphyra brassolis is aphidivorous is
an inference of the writer, and is based upon grounds, which he has fully de-
tailed in the Canadian entomologist,
vol. 19, p. 61. Undoubtedly, as we
come to a fuller knowledge of the habits of the Lycaenidae of the tropics of the
old world, we shall find that there are
several genera besides those which have
been named that have similar habits. I . strongly suspect that the larvae of Lach- nocnema and of Euliphyra mihi, are
like the larvae of Spalgis and Feniseca
in their food habit.
I give upon Plate 4 the figure of the
larva, the chrysalis, and the imago of
Spalgis s-signata, and have also given
a magnified representation of the dorsal



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202 PSTx'HE. [January 1892.
aspect of the chrysalis, which excited
very naturally the surprise of Mr. Good, as his note which I append to this brief account shows. It is worthy of remark
that the same strange likeness to a
human face which is found in S. s-sig-
nata, is observable in Feniseca tarquin- ius. In the notes sent to Mr. Edwards
by Miss Morton, and published in the
Canadian entomologist, vol. 18, p.
147, she asks "Have you noticed the
ape's face which the chrysalis shows ?"
While Mr. Good regrets that he was
unable, in inflating the larval skin, to preserve the white matter adhering to
it, there is, nevertheless, a good deal of it clinging to it. Examined under a
powerful microscope this adhering
matter is seen to present a peculiar
shining appearance, and to thickly
cover the hairs with minute granula-
tions as if each hair had been dipped in some substance like a solution of sugar
or salt, and then had been dried. I
herewith give Mr. Good's notes :
January I $1, I 89 I.
"Today I stumbled upon the queer-
est object which I think I ever saw.
On the underside of the leaves of a
fragipanni I saw a number of small
chrysalids which bore a most absurd
å
resemblance to a human face.
I found
a few of the larvae still unchanged.
Their color was dark brownish, but I
have inflated one, and that will be better than any description. The body was
all covered over with a whitish sub-
stance, not a part of the body, and
which I took to be the remains of plant
lice with which the underside of the
leaves on which the larvae were found
abounded. I think that these caterpillars must have fed upon these white plant
lice, for I could not detect that they had eaten the leaves. Almost all of the
white foreign substance is rubbed off
of the specimen which I inflated, and
I regret that I did not succeed better
in preserving the specimen just as it
appeared.
The chrysalis is attached to
the leaf by the back of the head,* and
presents to view what mimics in a won-
derful way the face of a man or a chim-
panzee. Especially do the eyes and
the well-marked brows overhanging
them present a startling resemblance to
the human face. The natives notice
and are surprised at the resemblance as
much as I am. Here is mimicry, but
to what possible purpose? Or has
Dame Nature for once laid aside her
usually practical character and decided
to amuse herself? I hope I may be
able to preserve and send a chrysalis
intact ."
January 24th, 1891.
"Today two of No. 10 have emerged,
and I am pleased to find that we are
dealing with a rare butterfly. The
empty shells show nothing of the
resemblance to a human or monkey
face of which I have spoken previously.
I have therefore dried a chrysalis, and
have succeeded well, except that one
eye looks a little bloodshot. I hope
that you can make out the exact appear-
ance of the chrysalis."
* Mr. Good, when speaking of the "head" in this
connection, is not employing technically accurate lan- guage, but is accommodating his phrase to the appear- ance of the chrysalis. The mode cf attachment is pre- cisely like that to be observed in Feniseca tarquinius.



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January I 892.1 PSYCHE. 202
Ì
Later. EXPLANATION OF PLATE 4.
"Fourteen butterflies emerged from
Fig. I Spalgis s-signata H0lh-d.
the chrysalids, but some of them did
Cllrysalis enlarged.
not disclose the imago, but dried up in
Fig. 2. Same. Chrysalis, nat. size.
the box, retaining their natural appear- Fig. 3. Same. Larva.
ance. I send these in a roll of paper."
Fig. 4. Same. Imago.
LIFE HISTORY OF ORGYIA CANA HY. EDW.
BY HARRISON G. DYAR.
ORGYIA CANA Hy. Ediv.
1881.-H. Edwards, Papilio, v. I, p. 62.
Ezg. Slightly conoidal though almost
spherical, smooth, shiny, opaque white, with a faint brownish spot and ring at the flat- tened end; diameter I mm. The eggs are
laid in a mass on the cocoon of the female moth, fastened together by a slight amount of froth and thickly covered with the faintly brown id^ down from the body of the moth. The winter is passed in this stage, the little larvae hatching in the spring and emerging as mature moths in July and August. There is but one brood a year.
first larval stag's. Head shining black, labruin a little paler; width o 4 n1111. Body sordid purplish black, a dorsal yellowish shade on joints 3, 4 and 9 and a whitish stig- matal line. Warts black, the subdorsal ones on joint 2, large; hair thin, but several hairs grow from each wart, black. There are no brush-like tufts, hair pencils nor retractile tubercles, but the places of the latter are in- dicated by a dorsal red spot on joint5 10 and I I respectively, not elevated.
Second stage. Head brownish black,
shiny; width 0.7 mm. Body and warts black, hair thin, bristly and black. The subdorsal warts on joint a are large, but there are 110 bi-iii-11 tufts nor pencils. The retractile tub- ercles are present on joints 10 and 11, small, and colored dull blood red. The doi-sum is paler on joints 3, 4 and 9.
Third stage.
Head black with a brownish
tinge, labruin white; width 1.1-1.3 mtn. Body black except on the doi-sum of joints 3 and 4 where it is yellowish white with a black dorsal line, and also a yellowish sub- dorsal spot on joints g and 10 (anteriorly). Warts all black; hair long, black with pen- cils of short, plumed, black hairs from the subdorsal warts of joint 2 (none on joint 12). There are small, dorsal, black, brush-like tufts 011 joints 5 and 6 and a few short tufted white hairs on joints 7 and 8. The warts of row 2 on joint g are a little tinged with red. Retractile tubercles red. Length of larva about g mm.
Fourth stage. Head brownish black, la-
brum and antennae sordid white; width 1.7- 1.8 min. Body greenish black below, gray on the sides, a black subdorsal and yellow subventral line. Dorsum largely sordid yel- low; cervical shield, a dorsal line on joints 3 and 4, a shade surrounding the tufts on joints 5-8, and a broad band from joint g posteriorly to joint 12, all black; joint 13 dark gray. The warts of rows 1-5 and the retractile tubercles are all blood red, concol- 01-ous, except those on joint 2 which are black. The plumed pencils on joint 2 are 2.5 111n1. long, and there is now also one on joint 13 dorsally. The brush-like tufts on joints 5 and 6 are brown, those on 7 and 8 white. The other hair is long and black but whitish subventrally.




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