Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
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Article beginning on page 504.
Psyche 6:504, 1891.

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504 ps2THZ?. [August 1893.
cremaster ; abdomen punctured, cases coarsely creased : color uniform dark brown, nearly black.
Length 17 mm. ; width 6 mm.
Food-plants. Poplar (Populus fremuloides and P. balsamifera), Larvae from Yosemite, Cal.
J moth. Allied to GZi@h/sia lintnerz'
Grote and G. avimacula Hudson.
Antennae
lengthily bi-pectinated, the pectinations black, with dense, pale ciliae; shaft with whitish hairs. Thorax and abdomen densely clothed with dark gray hairs, black and
white mixed, much darkest on thorax, the posterior edge of the collar defined by a paler line. Wings dark gray, nearly white scales intermixed with black scales and hairs, the white predominating in the
median space.
At the base of fore wings, on median vein, is a small ocherous dot, contiguous to, and forming part of a basal ocherous shading, *enclosed in the space between median and internal veins, and bordered outwardly by an obscure, brownish-black, transverse line. Sub-basal space gray, clothed with black and white scales becoming lighter just before the t.a. line. Transverse anterior line distinct, velvety black, outwardly produced on sub- costal, median and internal veins and in- wardly arcuate across the cell and submedian interspace, most strongly defined at the internal margin.
Median space broad, pale
gray, with a central blackish shade-line in which is an obscure ocherous crescent at end of cell. Space below median vein next to t.a. line also shaded with ocherous, extending to the tip. line along internal margin.
The
veins are slightly lined with black.
Trans-
verse posterior line whitish, dentate, pre- ceded and followed by a black shade which is emphasized by the black markings on all the veins before the line, and fills in the sub- terminal space outside of it.
Subterminal
line outwardly arcuate to vein 4, thence again strongly arcuate to the interspace between veins 2 and 3 and thence straight to internal angle. It is shaded with ocherous yellow and bordered outwardly with dark brown;
but is narrowly broken on each vein by the gray ground color. Terminal space even,
dark gray; fringes spotted with white and blackish brown. Hind wings thinly scaled, dark gray, paler at base, with two transverse pale lines defined by black scales and, on the internal angle, by three distinct black spots, the lower one of which is on the fringe. The
outer line is faint, but is tinged with ocher- ous at the anal angle. Fringe as on fore wings. Beneath, blackish gray; a common
extra mesial pale band, bordered inwardly with black. Hind wings whitish centrally. Expanse of wings, 41 mm.
Mr. Neumoegen has recently proposed the
name Melia* (which, however, is preoccu- pied) for the linterni group of Gluphisia, describing as the type M. daubyi. This is the form of GZu/hisia severa found in the Northwest, and I do not think it specifically distinct from that which occurs in the Sierra Nevada. I have taken it at Portland, Oregon, and have seen two examples in the collection of Mr. R. H. Stretch, presumably captured in Seattle, Wash.
A COCKS-COMB GALL ON RHUS
MICROPHYLLA.
BY C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND,
KINGSTON, JAMAICA.
On June 16, 1892, I found a gall of very striking appearance, from its deep scarlet color, on Rhus microfhylla, near Mud
Spring, which is on the road between Las Palomos and Cuchilla Negra, in Sierra
county, N. Mex. The gall is of peculiar
shape and resembles a cluster of many
thickened leaflets massed together. At a casual glance, it might be mistaken for the fruit of the Rhus, which is in clusters and orange-colored but very different in form. The same gall was found next day, June 17, in the upper portion of the small cafion known as the Cafiada Alamosa.
*Can. ent. xxiv, 225.




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August 1893.1 p-5 2'x'zm. 505
Gall.-Average diameter, 15 to 25 mm;
length (on twig), about 20 to 30 mm.
Galls
luster-like, irregular in shape, sometimes, rounded, cocks-comb-like in appearance,
springing from the small stems which shoot out laterally from the twig or branch, or terminal portion of latter. Consisting of irreglar massed clusters of many aborted, deformed, greatly thickened and fleshy leaflets springing from the side stems; surrounding the twig or branch but not attached thereto, dark scarlet-red in color on all surfaces ex- posed to the sun, the under side when not so exposed being annually greenish and always lighter than the upper or exposed portions. Inside portions green. External surface of the gall extremely irregular in outline, the fleshy leaflets arranged in irregular cocks- comb-like groups more or
less pointed api-
cally, the groups of leaflets longitudinally creased, appearing as though formed of many little columns setside by side and soldered together, much resembling groups of certain columnar crystals.
Described from 3 or 4 galls. The fleshy
groups of leaflets contain irregular cavities within them. These, when opened the fol- lowing spring, revealed only small pale
brownish bodies attached to the walls inside. I am unable to suggest the order of insects to which the maker of this gall belongs. It may possibly be an acarid -perhaps a phy- toptid.
TARDY WING-EXPANSION IN CALLOSAMIA.-
A few days ago I found, in Kensington,
N. H., a small wild-cherry tree hung with cocoons of Callosamia Promefhea to the
number of seventy-five at least. On some twigs six or seven hung close together, all unusually large and light-colored. I cut off over thirty of them, and on June 12th I
opened them, finding all good but one, in which the pupa had failed to cast the larva- skin, and so had died. One cocoon con-
tained a $ on the point of emerging, the pupa-skin being broken in several places. I took out the half-emerged moth, removed the ragged pupa-skin, and the moth crawled to the top of my cage, and hung there, un- developed, all day and all night. This
morning, June 13th at nine o'clock, its wings were still undeveloped, and I supposed it had been stunted by the unusual mode of emer- gence. At ten o'clock, however, the wings. had expanded to nearly full size, and in half an hour more the moth was a fine specimen, .
fully developed, and unusually large !
I have never known the wings to expand
so many hours after the moth had emerged. Caroline G. Soule.
Brookline, Mass.
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. - Insect parasi-
tism is admirably and suggestively treated in Pres. Riley's address to the Entomologi- cal society of Washington, just printed in its proceedings. It is worthy of the closest attention as a broad outline of the subject; by the introduction of fuller illustrative de- tails it could easily be expanded into a vol- ume and be a very welcome addition to our literature.
In the last part of the transactions of the Entomological society of London, Dr. David Sharp shows that ants stridulate by means of fine transverse lines on the middle of the dorsum of the third abdominal segment
where it is rubbed by the edge of the pre- ceding segment; these organs are usually present in the Ponerides and Myrmicides, but appear to be absent from the Campono- tides and Dolichoderides.
A. D. Hopkins prints in Bull. 31 of the
West Virginia experiment station an inter- esting Catalogue of West Virginia Scotyti- dae and their enemies.
Wytsam of Bruxelles announces a new
issue of Hiibner's Sammlung exotischer
schmetterlinge and Zutrage, 664 quarto plates in all, the plates copied by heliogravure and colored by hand; the original and the latest nomenclature will be added. It will appear in 60 equal parts and be sold for coo francs, payable by parts.




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