Article beginning on page 297.
Psyche 8:297, 1897.
Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/8/8-297.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.
December 1898.1
PSYCHE.
A NEW ANT-NEST COCCID.
BY GEO. B. KING AND J. D. TINSLEY.
Dactylo-fiius cocJ?ereIli, n. sp.-Adult 9. large hairs, Mouth parts very small, rostra1 Length 24 mm. Width I; mm. Shape, loop not reaching half way to base of middle ovoidal, quite plump. Color, reddish vary- legs. Legs quite stout, short and bristly; ing to brownish.
Coated with white mealy
femur and tibia nearly equal in length, the secretion. With a hand lens the segments femur being a little the longest, and quite of the body are quite distinct. No lateral stout, 140 p long 65 u, wide. Tibia 120 p or caudal appendages. Boiled in caustic long. Tarsus short, less than & the length .
potash the insects do not stain the liquid. of tibia, 60 u, long. Claws stout and curved, Shortly after boiling however the insect 20 p. long. Tarsal digitules very fine and changes to a deep reddish brown color. quite short. Claw digitules short, knobbed Cleared and mounted, the skin is colorless, and quite indistinct. Anal ring with the usual 6 hairs.
Caudal tubercles nor-
mal, each with a long hair (& longer
than those of the anal ring) and one
much shorter hair; there are also a
long conical spine and other short
spines. The skin has a few scatter-
ing long hairs and conical spines more
noticablc between the antennae and
some more on the margin and numer-
011s gland spots.
Habitat. Andover, Mass,, Sept. 17,
1898, in nests of Lasiusfuvus L. under
a flat stone. The coccids are con-
cealed in a small snow white cottony
ovisack, composed of a fluffy mass of
cottony secretion 4 mm. long and 1%
mm. wide. At the anal end of the
sack are found the small oval bright
pink eggs of the coccid. This is the
9th ant-nest coccid found in Massa-
Dactylopius cocterelll.
chusetts, and it should be stated here
Antema and leg, x 200.
that Daci!yIizå´{>in citri Boisd. and D. Antennae, legs and mouth parts light adntidum L. have also been found In ant yellow after mounting. Antennae 8 jointed, nests in Mass. 8 longest and thicker than 5 X 6 or 7 and &a This species Is probably most nearly al- long as those three joints together.
a always lied to Dactylafks kingii Ckll. from which longer than I : three next longest, then 7 X it differs in having the antennae and legs 5 and 6 with the4 shortest.
Forrnula821375~ stouter; in kingii the 1st joint of the an- There is little difference between the joints tennae is always longer than the zd, while from 4 to 7 except that* is distinctly shorter, in this species the ad is usually longer than joints 1 X z are nearlyas long again as 6 and the istalthough they way be subequal. The 7.
All of the joints have numerous rather femur of kinfti is considerably longer usu-
================================================================================
298 PSYCHE. [December 1898.
ally 180-225 p and being of about the same width 165 p the femur appears more den-
der. The ovisac of &gii is also not so
compact as in this species. The drawings are by Prof. Tinsley who is also respon- sible for the comparison with allied species. SECOND NOTE ON A NEW I-IEMI-
LEUCA.
Hemz'7enca sororia race oliviae, Ckll.,
Psyche, 1898, p. 252. 8.
(Sta. Fd. N. M.)
On Aug. 20, 1898, Mr. John Davis sent me some larvae collected at Maxwell City, N. M., stating that they were then extremely numer- ous, and were devouring the pastures. With the larvae were sent pieces of grass, which Prof. E. 0. Wooton identifies as a Mu&-
her@ probably M. texaua Thurh. iporteri
Scrib.). From these larvae I bred four moths of oliviae, which was only known heretofore bya singleJ' ! A male emerged Sept. 13, two males Sept. 14 and a female Sept. 15.
Larva. Of the living larva, I noted as fol- lows:- Ochreous with a very dark brown
head ; body irregnlarlv marbled with very dark brown, especially about the sutures; tufts of spines as usual in the genus, the central ones black, the lateral ones (s$iwiles) ochreons with black tips; Lhoracic legs black.
The skin Is sparsely beset with colorless hairs. Spiracles narrowly edged with black. Cocoon. The cocoon is composed mainly
of fragments of the Muhlenhergia loosely woven, with many open spaces.
Imago.
Themales agree in the main with
the Santa Fd type, but are perhaps, a little grayer. The female expands 65 mm., and
has awarrner, more rosy color than the males. The general color of the anterior wings is nearly uniform, with the two pale bands dis- tinct.
Compared with the description of H. sor- uric Hy. Edw., the? olivine differs thus:- Costa of primaries orange-ferruginous
throughout ; secondaries above with the nerv- ures pale ferruginous ; on the under side the nervnres are pale ferruginous 011 all the wings, and the costa of the primaries
is broadly orange ferruginous, snbfnscous at base, that of the secondaries washed with blackish; head clothed with dark fuscous hair, gray on vertex and occiput; thorax with dense long gray hairs; antennae entirely bright orange; abdomen above with fuscous hair, chestnut on the first two segments; hind margins of third to fifth segments with red hair, which is replaced by white on the ex- treme sides, and beneath except in the mid- dle; apex with mixed fuscous, white and red hair. The expanse is 11 mm. less then that of sworia.
H. olivine is of about the same size as H. soro~ia Jiiialapai (Nenmoegen), from S. W. Arizona, but differs in the markings. The three forms, soyoria, hual@ui md olivine are clcarly geographical races of a single well marked species.
In the Mesilla Valley, N. M., I have never taken H. oliviu#, but only II. maia race ur- ternis (Pack) and H. fino Pack., the former being much the most frequent.
T. D. A. Cockerell.
N. M Agr. Ex$. Sta.
A CURIOUS cocuox OF ATTACUS CECRO-
PIA. -In September last I found a very large larva of Cecropia feeding on willow in a swampy place. I took it home and it began its cocoon thenext day, in a white paper box, from which I removed allleaves. The cocoon was glistening white at first, and in this state was packed with white cotton for transporta- tion from Vernmnt to Brookline. The box
was unopened for a month, and when the
cocoon was taken out it was nearly a)l green, the small spaces not green being jnst off white. The pupa seems to be in good condi- tion and is evidently alive.
Caroline G. Soule..
Brookline, Oct. r5.
================================================================================
Volume 8 table of contents