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Psyche 6:213-215, 1891.

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Psyche, 1892, Vol. 6.
Plate 5.
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PSYCHIC.
NOTES UPON THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF SOME AFRICAN LEPIDOPTERA.
BY W. J. HOLLAND, PH.D.9 PITTSBURGH, PENN. From among the mass of material il-
lustrating the life-history of various
species of West-African lepidoptera in
my possession, and for which I am
largely indebted to my indefatigable co- adjutor, Mr. Good, I have culled a few
notes, which are likely to prove inter-
esting to the student of entomology. I
have in all cases sought to elucidate by presenting sketches of the objects them- selves, which I have drawn at moments
of leisure, and which may be relied
upon to do even more than the verbal
accounts which I herewith give to make
the subject plain.
SATURNIA ARNOBIA Westw.
In the Proceedings of the Zoological
society of London for the year I 88 I, p. 142, Prof. Westwood described a large
bombycid moth to which he gave the
name Saturnia arnobia. The specimen
upon which he based his description
came from Old Calabar, and is in the
collection of T. Chapman, Esqr., Glas-
gow.
From Mr. Good I have received sev-
eral males which correspond in the
main with the figure and description of
Prof. Westwood, who does not, by the
by, indicate the sex of his type. The
females differ quite materially from the males, and there is evidently a dry sea- son brood, which differs in both sexes
quite considerably from the wet season
form. But the most remarkable fact in
the life history of this great moth,
which equals in expanse of wing the
largest Bombycidae of North America,
is the fact that the chrysalis is sus-
pended, and while the caterpillar
weaves a few stout silken threads about
the spot where it undergoes its transfor- mations, the chrysalis hangs pendulous
from its support like the chrysalis of the Nymphalidae. This is best understood
from the figure given upon Plate 5.
Before giving a description of the va-
rious forms of the species, I give the
notes sent me by the collector :-
"No. 43. This number designates a
very large moth which emerged from a
very large chrysalis. The first of these large chrysalids was handed to me at
Elovi, a town fifteen miles down the
river from Kangwe. This chrysalis has.
not yet disclosed the imago, (May 14th,




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214 PSYCHE. [February 1892.
1888). Two weeks or more afterwards
(April 30), I obtained six more chrysa-
lids at the same place, and one of the
flies which had come out in the hands
of the natives and is not perfect. One
of the lot secured upon April 30th came
out during the night of May 12th and
damaged itself slightly before I discov- ered it. I send it in the envelope
marked 43, and the empty pupa-case in
a box marked with the same number.
Is not this an anomaly? I have never
before obtained a moth from a chrysalis
hanging suspended as this one was.
When I got the chrysalis first I thought now I have the chrysalis of Papilio an-
timachus or zalmoxis, and I'll get the
female sure. I had been led to suppose
from my reading that chrysalids so sus-
pended and comparatively unprotected
always produce diurnal butterflies. The
chrysalis is dark green in color, begin- ning to change before disclosing the
moth to a pale green, and later to the
yellow of the empty shell."
Mr. Good sent me of this brood six
perfect specimens, male and female,
and several chrysalids which had failed
to disclose the imago, and from one of
which the figure on Plate 5 is drawn.
Later he sent me three of the second
brood, and a chrysalid, which in form
is identical with the chrysalids of the
first brood, but smaller. This last
sending was accompanied by the fol-
lowing note :-
"No. 43. -I designate these speci-
mens by the same mark, No. 43, as
those which I sent you in the summer.
The chrysalid appears to be identical in form and color, but the moths are very
different in color. If this is the same
species then the larvae bred in the dry
season do not produce as fine moths as
those that feed in the latter part of the rainy season. These specimens emerged
Oct. ~ t h , 1888, the rainy season,
which is late this year, having just
commenced."
Rainy season brood. 3. Not dif-
fering materially from the figure and
description of Prof. Westwood. The
ground color is a bright yellow, with
the darker markings ochraceous rufous.
Expanse 6 1-2 inches.
9 . Wings very broad, and not nearly
as pointed at apex as in the male. Gen-
era1 color tawny ochraceous, with
darker markings deep burnt sienna.
Expanse of wings 7-7 1-4 inches.
Dry season brood. The general
color of the two sexes is the same, and
may be described as Mars brown, with
the darker markings of a livid purplish
cast. Expanse of wings : 8 , 4 3-4
inches ; 9 5-5 I -2 inches.
IDIOMORPHUS VALA Ploetz.
Under this name Dr. Ploetz described
from a single female a species of Idio-
morphus (genus of Satyridae,) which
had been collected by Dr. Buchholz
upon the West African coast. l&e
species is very common upon the Ogov6
River, at all events I have received
from Mr. Good many scores of exam-
ples, male and female. The larval
stages of this genus, which is peculiar to the hottest parts of tropical Africa, have



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February 1892.j
PSYCHE.
never been described, as far as I am
aware. Unfortunately the inflated
caterpillar of the species did not turn
up in the sending in which it was in-
cluded. Whether it was destroyed by
the carelessness of custom-house offi-
cials, or in some other way was lost, I
do not know. The chrysalids sent me
by Mr. Good came safely to hand and
are outlined upon Plate 5. In speaking
of the habits of the larva the collector says :-
"The larvae are very peculiar look-
ing creatures, gregarious, feeding spar- ingly upon a low and very coarse grass,
which grows in open ground and forms
great bunches. The leaf of this grass
is from a foot to a foot and a half in
length, and from an inch to an inch and
a half in width. When not feeding
these caterpillars are always to be seen on the under side of the leaf, lying to- gether as closely as possible, and pre-
senting a very queer appearance. They
increase in size very slowly. The chry-
salids I send you were suspended from
the lid of the box, but in nature they
hang from the underside of a leaf or
blade of grass.
The first of the butter-
flies emerged Dec. 24th, and the last
Dec. 29th. The time during which
they remain in the pupal state is about
a week.."
There are five species of Jdiomorphus
which are found at Kangwe, of which
the species before us seems to be the
most common. They are the follow-
ing :-
I. vala Ploetz.
I. hewitsonii Doumet.
I. italus Hewitson.
I. zinebi Butler.
I. sebetus Hewitson.
Of the latter species I have thus far
received but a single specimen.
It ap-
pears to be the rarest of the five.
HARMA CAENIS Drury.
Of this species Mr. Good sends me
an inflated larva, and several chrysalids, from which the figures on Plate 5 are
taken.
The female of this species is polymor-
phic. There is a female which very
closely resembles the male, and in fact
cannot be separated from it, except by
an examination of the sexual organs.
This form is not common. I have but
one specimen. Then there is a dark fe-
male, which is the common form and is
figured accurately in Staudinger's work
upon the Exotic Butterflies, and was
also figured by Cramer as Harma am-
phiceda. Then there is still another
form in which the basal area of both
wings upon the upper side is more or
less suffused with red. Both of these
latter forms are before me bred in nu-
merous examples from the same batch
of larvae.
In a letter received from Mr. Good
several years ago he stated that this spe- cies is in the habit of migrating in great swarms. Apropos of his account of
the migration of Harma caenis the fol-
lowing' note giving some details as to
the migration of another species may
not be inappropriately reproduced here.
(Oct. 14th, 1890. To-day at Batanga
I saw Crenis amulia flying in great




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PSYCHE.
[February 1892.
swarms just as some years ago I saw
Harma caenis in the Ogov6 region.
They seemed to come from nowhere in
particular, they flew in no order, no
two even keeping company. Some-
times only a dozen were visible, at
other times hundreds seemed to fill the
air. They flew a little E. of N. E.
This has no particular significance,
however, as this is the general direction of the coast here.
Even upon the beach
the migratory movement was easily ob-
served, and as far as I went back, (about half a mile) the air seemed full of the
flies. None were returning, and all
flew as if they had a definite purpose in view. A native remarked it, and ven-
tured, in calling my attention to the
movement to add LSometimes they fly
so, and sometimes they fly in the oppo-
site direction.' " . . .
"1 am utterly at a loss to account for
the phenomenon. The explanation
which I suggested for the migration of
Harma caenis, which this exactly re-
sembles, will not apply here. That
took place near the end of the dry sea-
son and was toward the approaching
rains.
But here the rains are frequent
now, and if these flies are seeking any- thing to northward it must be dry
weather."
CHRYSOPSYCHE MIRIFICA Butler.
I have received from Mr. Good sev-
eral specimens of this exceedingly beau- tiful bombycid, and also a specimen of
the cocoon, which is very tough and
dark chocolate brown in color and
studded all over as are many of the
cocoons of the African Bombycidae
with minute spines, which are derived
from the epidermis of the caterpillar.
The figure upon Plate 5 will serve
better than a description to give an idea of the form of the cocoon.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 5.
Fig. I. Chrysalis of Saturnia arnobia
Westw.
Fig. 2. Chrysalis of Idiomorphus vala
Ploetz. (lateral view).
Fig. 3. Chrysalis of Idiomorphus vala
Ploetz. (dorsal aspect).
Fig. 4. Larva of Harma caenis Drury.
Fig. 5. Chrysalis of "
Fig. 6. Cocoon of Chrysopsyche miri-
fica Butler.
CONCERNING THE "BLOOD-TISSUE" OF THE 1NSECTA.-I. BY WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER, WORCESTER, MASS. Hitherto little attention has been de-
lature and nervous system, and even on
voted to the study of the blood, fat-body, the alimentary tract and its various sub- and allied structures in insects. We
divisions, but few serious attempts have have extensive monographs on the eyes
been made to fill the gaps in our knowl- and other sense-organs, on the muscu-
edge of the physiologically highly im-




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