Article beginning on page 220.
Psyche 6:220, 1891.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/6/6-220.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

220 PSYCHE.
& [February 1892.
that the fat-body is not derived from the oenocytes, that it is not of ectodermal
but of mesodermal origin as claimed by
the majority of authors, and that there
is no evidence for the origin of the blood from the oenocytes.
It is interesting to note that only the
winged orders of Hexapoda, the Ptery-
gota, seem to possess oenocytes. I could find no traces of these peculiar cells in Lefisma saccharina, Cam$odea fra-
g2is (young and adult) and Anurfda
maritima, insects which may be taken
to represent the three families of the
Apterygota. If oenocytes exist at all
in this subdivision of the Hexapoda,
they are probably confined to the
embryo or to the forms most closely
allied to the Orthoptera - like Machilis. I believe that oenocytes do not occur
in the Myriopoda. In the just-born
young of Scolojendra complanafa from
the Galapagos I find no traces of them
and so far as I am aware they have not
been described by any of the investi-
gators of Myriopod anatomy.
DESCRIPTION OF A SARCOPHAGA BRED FROM HELIX. BY C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND, LAS CRUCES, N. MEX. I have recently received from Mr. H.
A. Surface, of the Ohio experiment
station, a small Sarcophagid which he
bred from Helix thyroides Say, while
engaged on
his catalogue of shells of
Franklin County, published in Bulletin
2, volume I, technical series, of that
station.
Mr. Surface accompanies the speci-
men with the following note : "The
snail was placed in a tight bottle Au-
gust 25, in Warren County, Ohio, and
during the first part of September the
pupae were seen. From September 27
to 30 five or six mature flies came
forth."
The fly proves to be a small species
of Sarcophaga. After considerable
time spent in looking over descriptions
of North American species, I feel justi- fied in considering it new.
Sarco$haga helicis n. sp. 9.
Eyes brown, bare ; front, sides of face and cheeks silvery or cinereous, sometimes with a brassy reflection; frontal vitta dark brown or blackish, about one-third width of front, the front being about one-third width of head ; frontal bristles descending a little be- low base of antennae; the two vertical bris- tles strongest, directed backward, next three bristles also directed backward, rest more or less forward ; two orbital bristles directed forward; a strong anterior pair of ocellar bristles directed forward and outward ; sides of face with a few bristles in a row on lower portion next orbital margin; cheeks about one-fourth eye-height, sparsely hairy with a row of bristles on lower border; facial de- pression more or less silvery, epistoma
rather prominent; facial ridges bare except two or three bristly hairs next vibrissae, the latter decussate and inserted on the oral margin; antennae a little shorter than face, black, second joint slightly elongate with a long bristle on front border, third joint



================================================================================

February 1892.1 7's 2ThYZ . 221
abont twice as long as second, moderately wide, rounded at apex; arista blackish, thick- ened on basal fourth, plumose on basal half, 3-jointed, second joint short; proboscis not so long as height of head, fleshy, dark brown or blackish, with well developed labella; palpi nearly black, moderately long, stout at tip, clothed with a few small bristles long- est on the underside; occiput cinereous, clothed with black hairs and fringed with black bristles. Thorax cinereous, with three well defined black vittae reaching scutellum, and with moderately strong macrochaetae ; scutellum cinereous, with an apical decus- sate pair of macrochaetae overreaching base of third abdominal segment, a shorter lateral pair, and a weak sub-discal pair. Abdomen black, more or less heavily shaded with sil- very or cinereous,
in some places with a
golden shade, first segment not shortened; first segment without macrochaetae, second segment with a lateral one; third segment with a median marginal pair and a lateral pair, anal segment with a marginal row of six or eight macrochaetae; anus slightly rufous. Legs blackish, femora more or less cinereous especially front ones ; tibiae more or less spiny, especially middle pair; claws and pulvilli short.
Wings longer than ab-
domen, grayish hyaline, with very small
costal spine, first vein spined half its length, second spined to small cross-vein ; apical cell opening before tip of wing, fourth vein bent at right angle, with wrinkle at bend, apical cross-vein bowed in ; hind cross-vein oblique, nearer to bend of fourth vein ; tegulae nearly white, halteres blackish.
Length of body 5 mm ; of wing 4 mm.
Described from one specimen. Ohio.
Sept.
--
EDWARDS'S N. A. BUTTERFLIES.
We seem among old friends in the twelfth part of Edwards's Butterflies of North Ameri- ica, which appeared early in January; for the early stages figured are of species, Papilio ~olicaon and Chionobas d e n , very similar to those whose histories have been before il- lustrated, while the additional figures of but- terflies are of other forms of the same genera, P. americus and C. varuna. In both the
species of which the life-history is told, there are interesting features. In P. zolicuon the spring butterflies are found to be from win- tering chrysalids of all three of the broods of the previous season; it would be instruc- tive to learn in what proportions the first and second broods are represented, and
whether any of the chrysalids of the first brood disclose their inmates at the season of the third. In C. ukleri breeding and field observations together show the species to be in part double, in part single brooded, and the exact statistics given are very valuable, since the behavior of the species
of this
genus is very irregular and incongruous, and every new fact helps toward a solution of difficulties elsewhere. It is needless but pleasant to add that the same abundance, one might almost say luxury, of illustration is employed as heretofore, and it is of mar- vellous delicacy and truthfulness.
Mr. Edwards would render his plates sim- pler if instead of employing the letters of the alphabet for the different illustrations of the early stages, without uniformity, he would always use some specific and invariable des- ignation, as I, 11, or Z1, Z2, for the different larval stages. Any one can tell at a glance an egg from a caterpillar or a chrysalis, but when the earlier larval stages are magnified, it requires much comparison of letters with legend to ascertain which stage of the cater- pillar is presented in particular cases; whereas if figures (I, 2, etc.) either by them- selves or in connection with the letter Z were used, no such reference would be needed, and comparisons could be more readily
made. It would also be simpler if in his text he would employ the terms "1st stage," "2d stage," etc., or some equivalent term in- stead of "young larva," "after 1st moult,' etc., neither of which is really definite



================================================================================