Article beginning on page 277.
Psyche 6:277-278, 1891.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/6/6-277.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.

June 1892.1 PSYCHE. 277
banded with darker brown. Anal props
slender, green with a vertical brown stripe. Anal shield shining green like the head. Spiracles, heretofore unnoticeable, green with a brown line on each side, and from them spread white lines like veins, distinct on the green sides of the larva.
Aug. 27. 4th moult. I inch long. Head
large, round, smooth, shining green, with a white line on each side of the median
suture, and a black line about halfway be- tween this and the edge of head. This
black line was edged with whiter on the
outer side. Body green. First three seg- ments had, on each side of dorsum, a wide white longitudinal line, below that a nar- rower one, below that a broken one. The
humps were as before except that on nth
segment, which became double. All the
humps were unevenly double, the first point being longer than that behind it, as if the second point grew out of the base of the first. The white patches extended up the sides of the humus, and between these
patches the gieen of the body, on the sides, made oblique lines. Sides and venter
green. There was a broken substigmatal
line of brown edged above with yellow, ex- tending from head to tips of anal props. Feet green with a vertical dark line. Props. green with a brown bar, this bar being
crossed by two darker brown lines.
Aug. 30.
The brown of the tips of the
humps had almost disappeared, as had the substigmatal line. The principal color was semi-opaque white, through which the deep blue-green of the body appeared in lines here and there,-notably the oblique lines on the sides,-and on the venter.
Sept. id. The larva was 18 inches in
length and A inch from the venter to the tip of the hump on 5th segment. In the
afternoon it grew dull in color, the humps seemed to be retracted, and, the next day, were almost level with the dorsal line, and the larva looked small and moist. It spun a few threads to fasten a leaf to the tin. Sept. 8th. The pupa appeared. Ptifa
3 inch long, neither stout nor slender,
dark brown with much darker head, thorax, wing-cases, anal point, and bands between the segments. Eye-cases prominent and
very smooth. Segments distinctly ridged
on the edges, and pitted between these
.ridges. Anal point long, slender, sharp. The pupa was very active, rolling a foot or more at a time.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. -By accident the
pages of the last number of Psyche were
marked April instead of May.
An interesting sketch of protective resem- blance as displayed in the animal world was given in February before the Belgian acad- emy by Dr. Felix Plateau, and will be found in its Bulletins, pp. 89-135. Interesting ex- amples among insects are given.
A new classification of the Acaroidea with full details and an enumeration of the genera is given by Dr. Trouessart in the Revue des sciences naturelles de 1'Ouest of Paris for January, 1892.
Five suborders and ten fami-
lies are recognized and six of the latter are separated into twenty-four subfamilies.
The eighth part of the leisurely Introduc- tion to entomology by Kolbe has appeared and contains some interei'ting summaries. The consideration of the muscles is con- cluded, and the mechanism and physiology of flight and other movements considered with interesting topical bibliographies. The nervous system is then taken up and its main features and especially the brain discussed, followed again by bibliographies.
The extensive but in no way expensive
work upon the families and genera of butter- flies begun in 1885 by Schatz and continued after his death in 1887 by Rober has just been completed by the publication of the sixth part. The neuration of nearly five hundred different butterflies, representing almost as many genera and accompanied by some rude details of the structure of the legs, palpi, and



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

278 PSYCHE,
[June 1892.
antennae, are depicted on the fifty folio plates, while the text (284 pp.) describes the families, lower groups and genera with a statement of the number of species in each. On the plan laid down the work is well and symmetriqilly done and will prove exceed- ingly useful; but the classification is bad, the nomenclature of the parts unfortunate, and in the meagre use made of the early
stages the hand of the closet naturalist is seen. Furthermore, the work comes to a stop without considering the Hesperidae, except in a single column in the introductory por- tion on geographical distribution. Schatz evidently intended to include them but
Rober quailed before the task. The work
can be obtained through Dr. Staudinger of Dresden. A Genera of Butterflies fairly up to the times is still a desideratum.
An interesting summary of his
observa-
tions on the visits of insects to flowers is given by Robertson in a couple of papers in the recently issued Transactions of the St. Louis academy of science (vol. 5, nos. 3 and 4). The first treats of the insects ob- served on Umbelliferae, the second on the other orders from Asclepiadaceae to Scroph- ulariaceae inclusive. The insects were de- termined by specialists.
The full details of his experiments on
destroying chinch-bugs in the field by the in- troduction of bugs affected by contagious diseases are published by Chancellor Snow in the first report of the experiment station of the University of Kansas.
Under the title Beobachtungen fiber miic- kengallen Dr. Fr. Thomas publishes in the Programme of the Ohi-druf Gymnasium ob-
servations on cecidomyian galls on thirty different European plants; twelve cases of wholly new cecidia are given, while of eight others the plant host is new.
Dr. Lintner's seventh report on the insects of New York has just been issued; it forms an abundantly illustrated volume of over two hundred pages, about one half of which is given up to accounts of eleven injurious spe- cies of different orders. Two papers read before horticultural societies are included in the appendix.
The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada. With special reference to New England.
By SAMUEL H. SCUDDER.
Illustrated with 96 plates of Butterflies, Caterpillars, Chrysalids, etc. (of which 41 are colored) which include about 2,000 Figures besides Maps and Portraits. 1958 Pages of Text.
Vol. I. Introduction ; Nymphalidae.
Vol. 2.
Remaining Families of Butterflies.
Vol. 3.
Appendix, Plates and Index.
The set, 3 vols., royal 8170, half levant, $75.00 net. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.,
4 Park St., Boston, Mass*
I am preparing a monograph of the Phalan- gidae of North America and will be glad to get specimens from any locality. Will identify and re- turn any sent. Specimens from the Northwest, Southwest, and the Pacific coast especially desired. CLARENCE M. WEED,
Hanover, N. H.
G UA TEMALAN B UTTERFLZES.
A collection of about 400 Guatemalan Butterflies, in papers as collected (mostly Nymphalinae and Pierinae, and no Hesperidae,)
will be sold for ten
dollars for the benefit of Psyche to the first applicant sending cash to
SAMUEL HENSHAW, Treas,
Mercer Circle, Cambridge, Mass.




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