Article beginning on page 435.
Psyche 8:435, 1897.

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PSYCHE.
COLOR-VARIATION IN LARVAE OF PAPILIO POLYXENES, AND OTHER NOTES.
BY CAROLINE G. SOULE, BROOKL1NE, MASS.
In the summer of 1899 these butter-
flies were remarkably abundant in Bran-
don, Vt., and on many occasions I fol-
lowed them from plant to plant collcct-
ins the eggs as fast as they were laid.
keeping those of each butterfly by them- selves.
Of more than 400 eggs the greater
number were laid on miaway prowing-
by the road, a few were on wild pal snip, and more than one third were on a
patch of parsley in the garden, the
whole patch not larger than a man's
pocket handkerchief.
As the larvae grew they showed
great variety in color and marks. In
the stage following the third moult
some were a little blacker than others.
After the fourth moull there was al-
most infinite variety, from those which
were almost all grass-green with only
hair-lines of black and very tiny yellow dots, to those which were almost whol-
ly black with hair-lines of green, and
yellow dots either very large or almost
imperceptible,
But the greatest difference was shown
by thirteen larvae which were :iLso-
lutely without green at any stage of
larval life, and were black and white,
with yellow dots, in the last stage.
The black varied much in these also,
one or two specimens having only hair-
lines of white.
Food made no difference in the color- -
ing, for all the larvae were fed chiefly on caraway, and all fat cd alike.
The black larvae came from eggs
laid by butterflies whose other eggs
gave normal larvae, and they passcd
through the four moults in every case.
I had tlie larvae in tin boxes on my
table, ;ind exainincil them at least twice daily, and each tin contained so few
larvae that I was able to be pcifcctly
sure of the moulting' of each one.
The chrysalids of thcsc black larvae
were of tlie In-own type, with no black
find no green about them, but several
shades of brown. They were like
twenty or thirty others formed by nor-
'
ma1 larvae.
Several of the normal larvae made
bright gicen chrysalids with rows of
yellow down. the back.
Although the first chrysalids were
formed on Aug~ist 6tl1, and others were
formed daily for many days, only three
gave the butterfly, and all of these were of the green form, and these three never



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486 PSYCHE. [December 1899.
hardened, as did those which have not
yet given the imago. This fact I no-
ticecl at the time, and kept watch of the chrysalids thinking that they ruight be
going to decay.
Out of 55 chrysalids which I kept for
myself only these three gave the butter- fly, yet out of doors there were very
many freshly emerged butterflies from
August 16th until September 2otli.
and these butterflies oviposited as plen- tifully as the earlier ones, giving larvae which pupated in October, the last one
I know about pupating on October
20th. I found small lcaves of caraway
bearing six, nine, thirteen, and fifteen eggs each, in different stages of develop- ment; as shown by their color. One
butterfly only I saw lay two eggs on
the same leaf, and these two were on
cliflerent divisions of the leaf, one being on the under side, the other on the up-
per side and close against another egg
which had turned almost orange in
color.
From watching the ovipositing I feel
convinccd that the butterfly does not
see clearly, but depends very much on
its antennae to distinguish between such plants as tansy and caraway. Several
times a butterfly would fly to the low
tansy lcaves growing close by the cam-
way, and bend its abdomen to place the
egg, when it would hesitate, touch the
leaf with its antennae, and fly to another plant. If this proved caraway the egg
would be laid.
The nearly full fed larvae preferred
the green seeds of the caraway to the
leaves.
Of all the larvae I reared from the
egg or took from plants out of doors
only one died, and that was stung by a
tachinid.
PSEUDOPOMALA AND ITS ALLIES.
BY SAMUEL 1~1. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Pseudopomala was founded by Morse
on an anomalous Acridian of New
England (since found as far west as
Utah) having a Tryxaline aspect, and
which he placed in that subfamily and
in this was followed by McNeill. On
account of the distinct though slight
pyramidal elevation on the prusternum
I have since placed it in the Mcsopcs,
a group otherwise confined to the Old
World. It bears a close general resem-
bla~~c$ to the oriental Gelastorhiniis
SEIUSS., has a similar low prosternal
spine, and an unmistakable Tryxaline
aspect, due largely to the tricannate
pronot~~m mid cnsiform antennae,
which it shares also with Opomala.
My opinion of its affinities has been
strengthened by finding in our country
another allied genus, whose type is
Misops c~~/ind~iczf-s Brnn., which has
a similar prostcrnal prominence and in
which the principal distinction from
Pse~~Jopomala lies in the absence of




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