Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
Quick search

Print ISSN 0033-2615
January 2008: Psyche has a new publisher, Hindawi Publishing, and is accepting submissions

Article beginning on page 128.
Psyche 8:128, 1897.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/8/8-128.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.

128 PSYCHE. [October 1897.
silvery pollinose. Pair of median stripes hardly apparent, and only on third scg-
merit. No black on legs or antennae.
Otherwise agrees with Williston's
description.
The common form of this species in
New Mexico, especially in the Mesilla
V~illey, is the present one-that orig-
inally described by Say as abdominale.
It is characterized in general by the
front, median abdominal stripes, and
legs being as described above. The
thorax has the median brown line less
conspicuous, or subobsolete ; the &do-
men with at least second and sixth
segments mostly yellowish ; abdomen
sometimes wholly yellowish, in which
case the median stripes may be moder-
ately distinct but reddish. See section
I1 of paper on Gila Diptera (Psyche,
1897)) for note on fz~,Iv~j?rons, ty pica1 form.
4. Belvosia. bifasciata Fab. One
? . Dripping Spring, Organ Mts.
About 5600 ft. August 10. Not quite
the normal type, but near it, Facial
ridges ciliate half way up, but not as
high as lowest frontal bristles. Third
antcnnal joint about 2* times as long as second. Third and fourth abdominal
segments wholly deep golden, as in the
normal form. The claws in 9 of this
genus are always hooked and black on
tips. The f has the claws nearly
straight, and without black.
LIFE HISTORY OF PYROMORPHA DIMIDIATA H. S. BY HARRISON G. DYAR, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The larva of Pyromorpha has previously
eluded detection on account of its peculiar hubit. It lives beneath the fallen leaves in oak woods, feeding on the dead and decaying leaves. The larvae are solitary. The period from egg to cocoon is three months, June 15 to Sept. 15. The winter is passed in the co- coon as in the other species of the family. The coloration is dark brown and rather uni- form to harmonize with the situation in
which the larvae live.
Egg. Elliptical, a little flattened above and below like Geometrid eggs, but more elon- gate and cylindrical than those. White, mod- erately shining, sofl and thin-skinned.
Length I mm., height and width .6 mm.
Reticulations distinct and regular, much rounde.1, like a series of contiguous circles. Siage I,
Head rounded, partly retracted,
black; width .3 mm. Body thick, slightly flattened, grayish white. Warts low, a group of hairs from tubercular bases, finely dotted spinulose, a small clear bulb at the base of each. Three warts and leg-plate seen, the larva wart with few hairs. Skin finely spin- ulose. The primitive first stage is absent. Staye II. Head retiacted in the fold of
Joint 2, black over the vertices of the lobes, ciypeus pale, mouth pointed, brown; width .,s mm. Body sordid gray, in marks. Hairs numerous, froiri large low warts, stiff, shut. pale with black tips, spinulose with basal bulbs as before. Beet normal. Later a faint whitish subdorsia.1 line is seen against the dark fold within, a narrow brown dorsal line and faint moltlings low down on the sides. Cervical shield brown.
Stage III. Head light brown with large
black eye, retracted in joint 2 ; width -6 mm. Body thick and stout, densely hairy. Cervi-



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

October 1897,l PSYCHE.
cal shield large, exposed, dark brown and nearly naked. Color grayish like dead
leaves, a narrow, dark brown dorsal line. Warts low, flat, but large in three rows. Hairs rather pale, hut in general concolorous, stiff, sharp-pointed with clear basal bulbs. Under a high power the spinulcs are seen to form equidistant rings making the hair ap- pear segmented. Skin densely minutely
spinulose. The large pale warts give the appearance of broad, faintly paler subdorsal and lateral bands, separated by the straight dorsal and broken lateral brown lines which gradually become defined.
Stage IV. Head light brown, eye black;
width .8 mm., retracted under the large, dark brown cervical shield. Body as before, the large flat warts pale, the ground color only showing as narrow chocolate hrown dorsal and subdorsal lines, pale between the seg- ments. Shaft of hairs segmented, the tips black, the bulb at the extreme base, small. Stage V. Width of head 1.1 mm., as
before. Warts brown in large pale gray
areas which cut up the dark brown ground into straight dorsal, wavy subdorsal and broken stigmata1 bands; subventral region pale brown; incisures dark, obscurely con- necting the bands. Joint 2 pale in front, dark behind covering the head. Feet pale. On
thorax warts i, ii, iii, iv+vandvi are present, on abdomen i+ii, iii, iv+v, vi and leg-plate. Hairs segmented, sub-barbuled with basal bulb which shrinks to an annulus at the end of the stage. The whole color becomes dark purplish at this time.
Stage VZ. Head pale brown, lighter in
the sutures; width 1.6 mm. It is retracted in the hood of joint 2, which is 'large with a large, dark brown, bisected cervical shield. Body thick and robust, not tapering, densely short hairy. Hairs segmented, with basal bulbs as before, well developed. Color dark velvety hrown, reduced to a series of longi- tudinal and transverse lines by the large, rounded and slightly oblique pale gray areas which surround the upper three warts (i, ii+ iii, i+v on thorax, i+ii, iii, iv+v on abdo- men). The warts themselves are brown.
forming dark centers to the pale patches, not so dark as the ground color. Hairs on lower side of third wart (iv+v) longer, concealing the subventral region. Feet pale. Spiracles brown, the one on joint 5 moved up. A cir- cular, pale, eversible area surrounds the spir- acle on joints 6 and I!.
Cocoon.
This is irregular, like Harrisina
but larger, the main web brownish, a little wrinkly and opaque with some white floss silk outside. Size 13 x6 mm. Spun between leaves on the ground.
DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO NEW FOSSORIAL WASPS. BY WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD, WASHINGTON, D. C. The two new fossorial wasps described
below were discovered by Prof. George
W. Peckham in Wisconsin, who will shortly describe their habits and life histories. (I) Astata .?mi-tkstromi, n. sp. 9 .-Length 8 mm. Entirely black, shining, and sparsely clothed with a whitish pubescence. Head
rather closely punctate, the clypeus truncate anteriorly and fringed medially with some black hairs, on either side of which are long glittering white hairs ; palpi rufo-piceous : first joint of flagellum about 4 longer than the second, joints 2-4 subequal, about four times as long ah thick. Mesonotnm anteriorly
finely punctate, posteriorly for at least half its length as well as the scutellum highly polished and with only a few minute scat- tered punctures; mesopleura punctate, closer and more distinctly so posteriorly; meta- thorax with a smooth impunctate space at base, confluently or regularly punctate poste- riorly. Wings towards base hyaline. the
apical half subfuliginous; the marginal cell is about as long as the first submarginal



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


Volume 8 table of contents