Article beginning on page 126.
Psyche 9:126-129, 1900.
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126 PSYCHE.
{November, qou.
2 2
higher
British
. Not rare throughout the I 9. Common in the Colorado Rockies, and in the foothills in
Rockies.
America. Drasteria erechtea Cranier.
Melicleptria villosa Grt. I 9 . Common everywhere. NOTES ON THE SPECIES OF MACROPSIS AND AGALLIA OF NORTH AMERICA.
BY E. D. BALL, FORT COLLIES, COLO.
In 1898 Osborn and Ball published a
review of the species of Agallia* in which thirteen species were included. A few
months later Mr. C. F. Baker in a paper
on the genus f described six species and one variety as new. Of these, five are
synonyms of species included in our
synopsis, leaving two to add to the list. The present paper adds three more,
making eighteen strictly N. A. species,
to which might be added five species by
Uhler from St. Vincent Isd. though not
strictly within our territory.
Agallia modesta 0. & B.
&&a mexicana Baker. Baker's
specimens were from the same locality
(Vera Cruz) from which modesta was
described, and agree in every respect,
except that he gives the last ventral seg- ment of the 9 as " slightly concave."
If he had followed his own elaborate
- -- -- - . -- - .
- - -
.
*A review of the N. A. Species of Agalla. Roc. Dav. acad. VII, pp. 45-64. Authors Separata mailed Jan. 26, 1&,8.
+ PSYCHE, April, 1898.
directions for viewing this segment (Ent. News Mch. '99, p. 9 1-92) lie would have found it truncate as originally described. In his remarks after the description
4-notaia (used twice) should read
4-punctata and "this " in the last sen-
tence should certainly be '& these " in- stead.
Agallia products &. & B.
Agallia hcydei Baker.
This species of
Baker's was also described fromthe same
locality from which the corresponding
one of ours came. A comparison of the
descriptions will satisfy anyonc of tlicir identity. In his description of the fe-
male segment he says u to a sha.llow1y
notched apex." The original descrip-
tion reads (( truncate but often angularly elevated, giving the appearance of a
slight median notch." Did lie follow
his own directions that lime ? The
name 4-noiata occurs three Limes in this description.; there has been no species
described under that name. He must
certainly mean 4$unctaia Prov,
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November, IQOO PSYCHE. 127
Agallia tenella 0. & B.
Agallia products Baker. The very
distinct genitalia ol the 5 will at once distinguish this species. Both were de-
scribed from Vera Cruz, probably from
the same locality. The name prodttcfa
could not stand in any case as it is pre- occupied by the preceding species.
Baker failed to mention how many
specimens the description was based
upon, a very important point, both with
regard to the accuracy of the dctermina- tion
and the amount of variation to be
allowed for.
In this case, thai he pos-
sessed one specimen of each sex, may
be told by the description, but in his
anomla the same omission exists, and
the female alone is described, probably
from a single example, the only distinc- tive feature being genitalia that might
easily be the result of accident or imper- fect development.
Agallia oculata V. D.
Male genitalia: -plates longer and nar-
rower than in tendla, slighlly, laterally elnar- ginate at the baseand enclosed by the swollen pygofers, the long, bluntly-rounded, upturned tips premedso closely together that the suture is scarcely visible.
The male genitalia were not described
in our synopsis of the group for lack of material. A. ocuiata is now known from
Calif, and Mexico City, Mex.
Agallia reticulata n. SP.
Form of novella -but inucli smaller;
tawny olive with ivory white markings and reticulations. Length 3 mm. ; width I mm. Vertex and face pale creamy yellow, a line on vertex just inside either cye, an oblique dash on either side the white apex, some- times curving outward on the posterior mar- gin, black; the occlli, :L pair of spots above them, a median line sometimes abbreviated to a third spot in line with the other two, a &pot above each antenna1 pit 2nd the latetal margins of tlie front, tawny orange. Pruno- turn tawny olive, the posterior margin nar- rowly light, lateral margin broadly so, a finger-like light process running from the humeral angle towards the inner corner of the eye, f. broad median light stripe rnnning forward from the posterior margin and tii- iingnlarly widening on tlie disc and then truncately narrowing, continued as a round spot, the entire stripe divided by a slender tawny stripe, tlie inxrgius of the white stripe sometimes narrowly lined with fuscous.
Elytra tawny olive, the veins and nun~er- OLIS vein-like reticulations broa.cUy white in strong contrast.
Genitalia; ultimate ventral segment of f long, with a distinct median carina, the pos- terior margin in two evenly rounded lobe&; male valve short, tri-iriciite, plates small, tri- angular.
Described from twelve specimens
from Hayti (Crew) taken in Jan. and
Feb. This species may be icadily
known by the reticulate veined clytia.
Agallia clitellaria n. sp.
Form of noveHa but much sn~aller, smaller than reticulain, narrow wedge-s!inpecL
Black wit11 light testaceous n~aikings on head and pronoturn and a Icinon yc11ow
saddle on the elytra.
Length 2.5 mm.
Vertex mid face black, a large pentagonal spot surrounding a s~niill, round, black one nt tip of vertex, a row of three small spots between this and the eye on either side, an oval spot on the base of the front, another on the disc, a triangular spot just inside the
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128 PSYCHE.
[November, iqm.
antennae and another above the lorae, test- aceous oninge. Pronotum fuscous 01 black, a pair of large pupillate spots on the anterior half of the disc and a few irregular spots toward the humeral angles, testaceons,
Scutellurn black, the apex and a pair oi spots on the lateral margins yellow. Elytra black, a bright lemon yellow saddle extend- intf from apex of scutell~~rr~ two-thirds the distance to the apex of clavus and laterally nearly to the costa, basal and apical veinlets marked with yellow.
~~~it',li~;-~lti~naLe ventrn.1 segment o( $ half longer than penultiinate, the poste- -ior margin nearly truncate, very slightly notched in the middle.
Described from a single female taken
at Port au Prince, Hayti in Feb. by Mr.
Crew. The yellow saddle renders this
so distinct and well marked a species
that I have no hesitancy in describing
it from a single example.
Agallia batretti n. sp.
Intermediate in chiiriicter between 4-f~7dC- taia and ~~~z~uinolenta groups.
Black with
a few light ~nwkings.
Length 4mm.; width
1.5 mm.
Vertex very narrow as seen from above,
evenly rounding, parallel margined, not ex- tending behind the eyes; front broad above, produced over the antenna1 sockets, rapidly narrowing below, genae narrow scarcely ex- tending beyond inner margin of eye, sharply angled, the margins straight; pronotum
finely granulated, faintly transversely rugu- lose; elytra broad and stout, venation as in &i,t;ctatu with a few irregular veinlets, the outer claval nerviire forked behind.
Color; dead black, four equidistant points on the posterior margin of the vertex, an interrupted circle around each ocellus, a large irregular spot on the base of the front, a smaller one on the margin below each
antenna, the inner margin of the eyes and the outer 1na1-gin of the genae, white or pale yellow; pronotum with three pale poi1115 in a triangle on the disc; elytra dark fuscous to black, the cross-nervures between the sectors and nearly all the nervures beyond the mid- dle irregularly mottled with white.
Genitalia; ultimate ventral segment of the $ slightly longer than the penultimate,
lateral margin straight, posterior margin broadly rounding, a faint median notch.
Described from two females from
Cuernavaca, Mex., from 0. W. Barrett
who has supplied me with a large
amount of good material. The irregu-
lar venation and the forked claval nerv- use will separate this from any of the
sanguinoZtnia group, to which it must be referred.
Agallia cinerea 0. & B.
A. san~z&oZenfa var. inconspima
Baker. This species is now known
from la., Colo., Calif., Ariz., and
Mex.
The Arizona specimens are larger than
the types or than Baker describes.
Agallia peregrinans Slil.
A@ia &afa Baker. Baker's de-
scription evidently applies to the form
that we have determined as the above.
It was described from Calif. yet he de-
scribes two more species from the same
place, h the same group, without mak-
ing any provision for it. It occurs
from Vancouver to southern California.
MACROPSIS Lewis.
Oncopsis Bunn., Stragania Stil, Pa-
chyopsis Uhl., Gargaropsis Fowl.
W. W. Fowler in his work on the
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November: 1900.] PSYCHE. 1%
Membracidae of the tiiologia* described
as a new genus and species Gargarofis
/?z?;ervis which he placed in Centrotinae remarking that it was "one of the puz-
zling genera which appear to be rightly
placed at the end of the Centrotinae
and which on the other hand scarce-
ly appear to be true Me~nhracids."
'' The present genus is very distinct
from any other described and docs not
sccm to have any very striking affini-
ties." Certainly not in Membracidae.
It is a typical Jfacropsis by description and figure and from- its size may be
distinct from either of Stil's species.
It is rather a sad commentary on the
accuracy of Fowler's work in the Biol-
ogia on Jassidae at least, which he is
just beginning, that he should have cle- scribed as one of the Membracidac a
well known Jassid genus of almost
world wide distribution, two species of
occur commonly in his own conn-
try.
Mr. Bakcr in a recent paper on the
genusf described six species as new to
North America. He was evidently not
aware of Osborn and Ball's description
of apicalis 'from Iowa$ described two
years before his paper, nor of Fowler's
species from Mex. of three years be-
fore, as he nientionecl neither of them
in his distribution of the species.
Most of his ncw species were based
"^Biolosia Centrali Americana. Rhytich. IIomop, Vol. 11, p. i67. Pl. X.
10" same N. A, Species of A-facropsis.
PSYCHE, May
on a very meager amount of material and
are of very doubtful validity when com-
pared with a larger series of specimens. His alatamensis is apicdis 0. & B.
The white hair, dark suture, and three
apical dots on elytra as well as the gen- italia readily distinguish this species. His rufoscufellafa (zs) seems to be
identical with specimens from Vera
Cruz, Mex., the males of which fit Stil's description of missella (founded on a
male) in every particular. It is a com-
mon Colo. species from the first foot
hills up to 9000 ft. It varies much in
the amount and depth of color on scu-
tellum and clavus. Some specimens
from both Colo. and Mex. have only a
trace of tcstaceous while in others most of the clavus is covered with dark
fuscous.
The species he described as califor7zi-
ca(its) occurs very commonly here in
Colo. It is also variable in size and
color in a large series, some females be ing entirely pale green while others are very heavily marked with black. The
elytra in these specimens very rarely
show supernumerary veins, the notch in
the female segment varies from rectan-
gular, to rounding with a broad me-
dian tooth. A slight notch in this tooth would complete the variation necessary
to form his magna (us) which was founded on a single female, undoubtedly only
variety of his californica. I fail to com- prehend what he means by " Pronoturn
without distinct supernumerary veins."
His atra is undoubtedly only another
color variation of the californica male,
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130 PSYCHE. [November, 1900
as he had but one male of each variety
and it would be exceptional to find two
from even the same locality exactly
alike in color pattern. Bakcr suggests
that atra may prove but a variety of
humilis Stil, a suggestion that is un-
doubledly correct as I have examined
males from Vera Cruz thai do not differ
from the Colo. specimens except that
they are slightly smaller, and tiis is also the case in missella the only other
species occurring in both places.
Macropsis laeta Uhl.
var. paeta 11. var,
tribution will be as follows. (The gen-
eric synonymy is given above.)
M. laeta Uhl. and var. paeta nov,
Known only from Colo.
M. apicalis 0 & B.
M alabu~nemzs Baker.
Iowa and Alabama.
M. robustus Uhl.
Ala. I,a. Texas, N. Mcx., Ark,
Calif, ancl Colo.
M. missella Stil.
M. riifosc~~teZ2ata Bakcr.
Colo., N. Mex. and Vera Cruz, Mex.
M. humilis Stil.
M. atra Baker, M cahfornica Baker,
M, magm Baker.
Colo., Calif. ancl Vera Cruz.
Differs from typical laeta only in color. In life the whole insect is sutiused wit11 1-ecl- M, innervis FO"'ler'
dish, the hyaline elytra allowing the stronger Mex. - Unknown in nature. Its color of the abdomen to show through. description (as a Meinbraeid) not giv- Dried specimens are of a delicate pink. This ing fall pink variety of a green species is analogous under one of the other species.
to the pink Ksityclid.
M. (?) idioceroides Baker.
Summed up according to the above N. Mex. -1 doubt very much synonymy, the specific limits and clis-
whether it belongs to the genus at all.
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GEOMETR1DAE.-XVI, BY HARRISON G. DYAR, WASIIINGTON, D. C.
E.iickl(?a)ta scrrnta Dm. The hrva is
hcre described tor the first time.
Egg.
Laid looscly, rolling iiround in the
tumbler like smd. Tn nxtnre tionhl.le.-i1-; f:tll- ing' upon the ground. Elliptical, not flat- tened, but of less diameter on one clit-eclion, both ends rounded, one (micropylar) sli$L- y more flattcnecl. Reticulations lar~e, about 13 the length of the egg, very htrongly raided, forming ridges, the reticulations wider than Ion~mid ~irraiigcd in noirly straight rows the length dthe e~g, forming 1ongit~~iiri;tlw;ived ricigcs, which are, however, exactly like the cross striae except that the latter are alterna- ting. Joinings oi reticulsitions vi-it11 white points in oblique view, not seen from aboic. Surface finely shagreenecl. Bright hluisli green, 1:itcr dak red. Size -8 X .5 X .4 mm. Sfoge. I. Head round, pale brownish, mot- tled, slightl? darker in a line above the bls~ck ocelli, und with whitish over the face ; width itbout .3 inin. Body rntl-ier short, not sicniler,
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