Article beginning on page 212.
Psyche 7:212, 1894.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/7/7-212.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.

212 PSYCHE. [Maich i8q<-.
DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THE LARVAL STAGES OF AMPHION NBSS US.
BY CAROLINE G. SOUI-E, BKOOKLINE, MASS.
This description is taken from two larvae found feeding on Ampdopsis V.c/ni, in
Brookline, on June 20th, 1894.
Length of larva one-half inch. Head
rather flat, and held with the mouth parts far forward instead of downward, giving a great slant to the head. It was green with a faint yellow line on each side, and a deep median suture. Body green, smooth, with
sparse hairs hardly to be seen without it glass. It had a darker green dorsal line, and on each bide a yellow subdorsal line extending from the head to the base of
the caudal horn.
Pale obliques were faintly
indicated. Feet and props green. Ciuida.1 horn long, slender, pink, paler beneath. yune qth.-Moulted. Three-fourths inch
in length. The head was slightly bilobed, and all the marks were more distinct except the obliques. Feet and props grccn. Caudal
horn shorter, stouter, dark a1 tip, and
tliglitly rough.
June zytk.-Moulted. Length one and
one-eighth inches. Head very round, bilobed, granulated on the sides; suture greener and deeper; face-lines opaque yellow white, the space between them being without granu-
lations. Body green with yellow white
granulations, and a dark green dorsal line. The subdorsal lines were yellow white
edged above with dark green, and were
not lines of granules. On the Lhoracic
segments were faint indications of lateral and stigmata1 yellowish lines. The gran- ules on the body were aminged in Lrans-
verse lines. The obliques were clearer,
yellowish with dark green above, the last pair extending up the sides of the caudal horn. There were still a few hairs near
the mouth, on the feet, and near the sub- ventral line of the thoracic segments.
The
feet and nnal props were green. The
~lbdorninnl props were green with a pink hand near the tip. Anal shield edged with yellow white, Caudal horn short, stout,
rough,-almost triangular in shape,- red
above: pink beneath, with a deeper red
line from the dark dorsal line to the tip of the horn. The third and fourth segments
were a trifle larger than the others,
July 2nd.-Moulted. One and one-half
inches long. General effect pale brown
granulated with yellow, cnch granule hav- ing a black dot in the centre. 1-Ieacl
bilobed, dark brown between the face lines and there granulated with black and a few yellow granules. Outside the face lines
the granules were all yellow. Body pale
brown with numerous black spots and
yellow granules. Dorsal, subdorsal, lnteral, and stigmata1 lines on the thoracic seg- ments. On the abdominal segments the
dorsal line was represented by a black
patch at the juncture of every two segments. The obliques were very dark, almost black, each ending, at the upper end, in a spot not quite round. There were nine obliques, beginning on the third -segment; the eighth extending up the caudal horn, and the
ninth crossing the spiracle under the caudal horn. Caudal horn short, stout, black,
rough, very small. Spiracles black with
a slight yellow encircling line, and a tiny yellow dot at each end. Anal shield darker brown than the body, and with the dorsal line extending to its lip, and the sublateral lines indicated. Edge yellowish. Feet and props brown. Anal props darker brown.
The third and fourth segments were very
slightly enlarged, suggesting A, Myron,
while the larvae, in this stage, twitched and jerked from side to side when dis-
turbed, as violently as 2'. Abbot//"
ply 10th.-The larvae measured three




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

March ~8cn.l PSYCHE. 213
inches in length. The granules had dis-
appeared, leaving only minute spots of
. brown paler than the body. The third and fourth segments were still so little enlarged as to be
noticed only by an entomologist.
All the other marks weie as before.
July izfh.- The larvae grew to look chisty on the back, and stopped eating.
Jzly z5'tJi.-Pupated.
Pupa one and one-
half inches long, neither stout nor slender; very dark brown, and coffee-colored between the abdoniinal segments. Segments honey- combed; wing covers slightly rough; eye
covers well defined. There was a slight
pointed tubercle at the base of each antenna, close to the eye. Anal hook long, slender, with a bifid tip.
The second larva differed from this de-
scription in having much clearer and darker markings, and in being a trifle smallcr. In the last moult it was at first bright green with dark green marking's, but became
brown twenty-four hours later, This one
also spun a few threads fastening a leafto the tin, while the first one did not spin at all. The pupa was a trifle smaller than the first one, mid on January 14th, 1895, at 2 F. M,, gave a fine 8 Amf>!iion r~mws.
RHOPALOMERA XANTHOPS, SP. NOV.
8, 9. Face wholly light yellow, with
a small rounded tubercle near the middle. Palpi yellow, blackish at the proxirnal
extremity. Antennae reddish yellow, the
first two joints largely, and the third on the upper border, blackish. Front yellow, black or blackish on the anterior margin; no lateral frontal biistles; a pair of minute proclinate ocellar bristles present. Meso- notuin reddish brown; when seen from in
front with two distinct stripes reaching from the anterior border Lo about midway on the scuteHum; a less distinct, median stripe, a narrow strip? on either side behind the suture, and the lateral margins in front, all opaque light yellow. Pleurae pitchy
brown, mostly shining; a single meso-
pleural bristle present. Scutellum gently sulcate above, the distal hulf shining
mahogany-colored. Abdomen black or deep
reddish black; second, third, fourth and fifth segments ciich with the sides silvery white; between these spots there are two rows of similarly colored spots, becoming successively smaller, those of the second segment more or less coalescent with the lateral ones. Ii~popygium black or pitchy black, shining. Legs pitchy black, the
upper part of the femora more reddish;
the immediate base of all the tibiae and the first two joints of all the tarsi light yellow; hind tibiae dilated iind ciliated, the row of bristles not very strong and not implanted on tuburcles. Wings strongly
tinged with brown, which is more intense distally in front and about the cross-veins. Length 1-11 mm.
Ten specimens, Yucatan, G. F. Gaumer,
Coll. Univ. of Kans. It is possible that this species may be identical with the
insufficiently described R. ftavice-ps of Macquart, from New Grenada, but not
probable, as there are positive discrepancies in the description of the head, thorax and abdomen. In several specimens the face
is for the greater part blackish, probably the result of desiccation.
In a paper read to the K. bohm. gesell-
schaft der wissenschaften on November 23d last, Dr. Anton Fritsch, of Prag, announced the discovery in tlie Permian beds of Bohemia of the larval cases of a caddis-fly. This is the first indication of the existence of insects with a complete n~etamorphosis in paleozoic times, unless the doubtful fragments found by Uathe in Silesian culm are to be regarded as shards of beetles, or the passages found in certain carboniferous woods are to be credited



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