Article beginning on page 105.
Psyche 8:105-106, 1897.

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August 1897.1
EGG-LAYING OF DEIDAMIA
INSCRIPTA.
0s June 4, 1897, I found on the under side of a leaf of Ampdopsis pinquefolia, seven eggs irregularly set, but evidently laid at the same date, and that a recent one. The eggs were very dark green and, under a glass, showed slight "facetting," and were unmis- takably sphingid. Further search brought to light a second leaf with six eggs, and a tendril with two.
Four days later these eggs all hatched, giv- ing larvae marked with a reddish spot be- hind and below the caudal horn. The laivae were yellow with almost no tinge of green, and remained so after feeding for three davs. My previous experience with young sphingid larvae has been that they grew green after one day's feeding. The caudal horn Mas
black with the tip white and ending in two setae.
On June 17 I found, on the same vine, four similar eggs, but laid among the flower-buds in such wise as to be well conceded by their strong resemblance to the buds in both size and color. As the buds grew lighter in color before opening, the eggs grew lighter by the yellower tint of the developing larvae, so that they still were like the buds!
It is one
of the most perfect bits of protective itnita- tion I have seen, and fully explains why I had before found no eggs, but only young larvae, of D. inser@fa -as these proved. After the first eggs found among the buds I hunted every bud-cluster within easy reach and found twenty more !
The first brood of larvae moulted but three times, and fed but twenty days, the second being the moult omitted.
In spite of this
the larvae grew to full size. The second brood has moulted three times at the usual intervals, and will probably moult again in three davfi.
Caroline G. Soule.
Bf-ooktine, July I, l897.
A REPLY TO THE CRITIC OF
PSYCHE.
THE critic of Psyche is kind enough to
notice "the Butterflies of Hildesheim" and concludes his remarks with the following paragraph :
'The scheme is based solely on the wing- neuration and has its merits and demerits on this ground. The most striking innovation is the primary subdivision which ignores previous dicholoiny by leaving the Hespei-i- idae in conjunction with others ; a. minor one is the separation with family signification of Nenieobius from the Riodinidae; it shows the length to which one may go in discussing classification from a single standpoint." Perhaps the shortest and most complete
reply to the above is, that had I discussed the classification of Nemeobius from a single standpoint and that standpoint the neuration, I should have referred the genus to the
Pieridae. That I did not do so, that every- where I have pointed out the characters of convergence in the neuration, that my study of the latter is an attempt to show, howevei- imperfectly and for the first time, the di'rec- tion which the evolution of the veining
assumes with the butterflies and that this direction it held and the characters repeated in distinct groups-all this seems lo have been overlooked by the critic. With reg-iird to Nemeobius I show that, while the Riodin- idae are hardly separable from the Lycae- nidae (Zephyrini) on pterogostic grounds, the neuration of Nemeobiits lucina contra- dicts the same characters in both the Riodi- nidae and Lycaenidae. To unite it with
either of these groups is to do violence to characters which have been long in forming, whereas to divide the Riodinidae from the Lycaenidae is to lay stress, perhaps undue stress, upon characters which have mani- festly token a shorter period to bring out. By a parity of reasoning I must conclude that the " family" importance of Nemeobius must be granted.




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106 PSYCHE, [~ugust 1897
As to the most striking innovation, the
primary subdivision, I show that the
Parnassi-Papilionidae are bound together by the most striking characters found mywhere throughout the neuration of Prof. Comstock's division Frenatae. The swallowtails are
more specialized than all the other butterflies through the absorption of vein viii of the secondaries and, in this respect, resemble the highest Saturniadae, such as the genera Rothschildia and Sumia. The radial system of the Papilionidae, aside from the state of the median system, cannot be said to be more generalized than in the Nympbalidae. The radial system of the Parnassiidae is more specialized than in any of the " four-footed " butterflies, in which no absorption of the radial veins has taken place. No other
group within the order has the short,
downwardly curved spur-vein on internal
margin which I have called vein' ix, and which I grant may be considered a general- ized character of the Parnassi-Papilionidae. The neuration of the Parnassiidae, taking the same developmental direction as else- where, accentuates characters commenced to be shown by the genuine swallowtails and the family must reasonably be considered to have emerged from the Papilionidae, than which it is the more specialized group.
Since all the other butterflies possess vein viii as a loop to vii at base, or a scar of same, while in the Agapetidae it has become lost, and the Papilionides have instead a strong spur-vein oppositely curved, it is clear they stand 'apart find are not to be ignon~inioiisly next above the skippers, as they are,
for instance in the Philadelphia Check List. After a11 butterflies have wings and these wings constitute a record.
So far I believe I reply adequately to the critic of Psyche, who, I think, can hardly have followed the text of my Fauna closely. I may finish with a word upon the methods of illustration employed to show the neu- ration. At the time I had 60 much daily
work in making and in studying when made the very many necessary preparations of the butterflies, that 'I had no leisure to study the wings of the moths. I relied, in fact, gener- ally upon the accuracy of all hitherto pub- lished drawings of venation. But, after the first part of the Fauna had gone to press, it occurred to me to compare my photo-
graphic illustrations with the engravings of others authors. To my surprise I found
that Dr. Spuler's figure of the primary of Pieris brassicae, given in his inaugural dis- sertation which has been much quoted in . America, differed widely from my own. An examination showed me that an entire vein, runningout to the external margin, had been added by Dr. Spuler. But this was a matter which after all did not concern me nor my Fauna. What did concern me was, that Mr. Meyrick had figured five primary wings of Geometridae in the Transactions of the En- tomological Society of London part i, 1892, and that I had relied upon the accuracy of these figures for my statement that in the Gcometridae vein viii was present as a fold and vein ix as a vein, "tubular" or other- wise. Mr. Meyrick figures the primary of Psewdo$anthe~a macdarici and four others. After my experience with Spuler, and also because I must soon in turn occupy myself with the Geometridae, I made preparations of the wings of P. macularia and four other, ditiei'ent hut sometimes allied forms to those given by Mr. Meyrick. I was greatly dis- concerted at finding that Mr. Meyrick's fig- ures were as faulty as Dr. Spuler's. Vein viii was a regular " tubular" vein in all five, and, therefore, Mr. Meynck should not have represented it by a dotted line which indi- cates a fold or scar, in other words a degen- erate vein. But the worst of all was, that there was not a trace of vein ix to be seen; the curved line, as representing here a vein, introduced so artistically by Mr. Meyrick in each and all of his illustrations was abso- lutely wanting in nature. With this my
suggestion that the Geometridae might be on the line of descent of the Parnassi-Papil-



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August 1897.1 psyclY2%. 107
ionidae falls away and I am still on the search for possiblc ancestors for my Papilionides. And this leads me to believe that photo- graphic methods are probably the only reli- able ones for reproducing neuration, and that my efforts for the introduction of photo- graphy in the illustration of lepidoptera, commenced first more than twenty years
ago, as recently kindly remembered by Mr. Moffat in the pages of the Canadian Ento- mologist, were efforts bringing fruit. Let me flatter myself also that my efforts to vitalize the study of the wings of the butter- flies will not have been in vain, nay, more, that they may even be ultimately crowned by the restoration of Papilio.
A. RadclUfe Groin, A. M.
Roemer Museum, June, 1897.
HAYWARD ON BEMBIDIUM.
IN THE Transactions of the American en-
tomological society, vol. 24, p. 32-143 (Feb.- May, 1897), Mr. Roland Hayward publishes a valuable monograph on the species of
Bembidium of America, north of Mexico.
One hundred and twenty-four species are
recognized as valid, twenty-four are de- scribed as new, and two new names are pro- posed for preoccupied names. The original descriptions of thirteen species described by Chaudoir, Manncrhcirn, and Motschulsky,
as yet unidentified, are reprinted in an appendix. In 1857, Dr. Leconte found
Duvai's g~ouping of the European species of Bembidiurn not at all applicable to the
species of our fauna, and published (Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phila., p. 2-6) a catalogue of the species found in the United States and contiguous northern regions, together with a tabular separation of the species into gl-oups. Leconte's keen perception of the true affin- ities of species, evident in all his work, is well shown here, as Mr. Hayward, after a thorough study of a large amount"of mate- rial, proposes but a slight modification of Leconte's order of arrangement of the groups, suppresses one of his groups, and erects but a single new one. Mr. Hayward's analytical tables are well prepared, and, though useful, should be relied upon only in connection with the descriptions; each species is fully described. The synonymy is carefully worked out: in most cases by direct comparison with the types; an adequate bibliography is given, and the habitat of each species is noted in more detail than usual in works relating to our fauna.
Guide to the Genera and Classification of the Orthoptera of North America north of Mexico. By SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 90 pp. 8åÁ Contains keys for the determination of the higher groups as well as the (nearly 200) genera of our Orthoptera, with full bibliographical aids to further study.
Sent by mail on receipt of price ($1 .oo). A. SMITH & SONS, 269 PEARL STREET, New York. XASUFACTCREESASD IMPOETEBSOF
GOODS FOR ENTOMOLOGISTS,
Klaeger and Carlsbad Insect Pins, Setting Boards, Folding Nets, Locality and
LOINS NET
Special Labels, Forceps, Sheet Cork, Etc. Other articles are being added, send for ~i~t,



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