Article beginning on page 375.
Psyche 9:375-377, 1900.
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PSYCHE.
.
A PROBABLE NEW TYPE OF HYPERMETAMORPHOSIS. BY JAMES G, NEEDHAM, LAKE FOREST, ILL.
While collecting stone-flies in Fall
Creek at Ithaca, I?. Y., in July, 1901, T found attached to some of the smaller
stones in the edges of the current num-
erous larval and pupal cases of micro-
caddis-flies. I was not at first entirely certain that they were caddis-fly cases : but 1 took a few of them into the labo-
ratory and examined their contents.
One contained a larva of the form shown
in fig. I, easily referable to the family 13yrlroptilidae of Trichoptera ; one con- tained a transforming larva (prtp2ipa :
subny~f~fha) of the form shown in fig. 2 - a form so unusual in this family as to awaken immediate interest ; and the re-
mainder contained pupae. The cases
were 3 mm. long, oå ihe form shown in
fig. 5, elongate oval, with a process at each end for attachment to the stone,
thin, flat, of a yellowish brown color,
and so translucent that the stage of
development of the contained animal
could be easily recognized under the
microscope before opening them. Such
cases have not hitherto been known for
caddis-fly larvae : they probably repre- sent a genus of Hydroptilidae for which
the immature stages have not been
described -- perhaps l'hryxicoma, to
which genus the two lone American
specimens of which our literature treats, have been referred.
I was then so fully occupied with the
study of other aquatic insects that I
could give but little time or attention to these : but I wished to see more ol that singular prepupa, and I managed to
spend an hour on the nth of July
collecting especially for it. I found the cases everywhere on the vertical sur-
faces of stones washed by a swift current, and had no difficulty in gathering for
preservation several dozen of them.
Recently I have studied this material.
It contained three larvae of the sort
shown in fig. I, three prepupae of the
form shown in fig. 2 and a very large
number of pupae with the general
appearance sketchily shown in fig. 5.
The small number found in the earlier
stages, and the considerable number of
empty cases found, showed the season
of transformaLion was well advanced.
Two of the larvae were still active when collected: I saw them moving freely
within their cases, though the apertures at the ends seemed to be already closed. Most Hyd~optilid larvae carry their cases with the thin edge upward, and in trans- Pswhr 9 175-178 tprc-1903). tmp:tlfsychcenlclub or@@-375 html
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formation, when the case is attached
flatwise, lie on their side ; but these
larvae lay on the venter, and the de-
pressed abdomen with its short recurved
hairs seemed to indicate that as tile
normal position. Prepupa and pupa lie
likewise with the ventral surface to the stone, the former with the head and
thorax and terminal abdominal segments
twisted to the left side. At this stage
the most remarkable feature of the
animal is the presence of five pairs of
appendages jointed upon the sides of
abdominal segments 3-7. Such append-
ages are wholly unknown in this order
(although quite characteristic of several aquatic genera of the Neuroptera) ; and
if, as I suppose, these larvae, prepupac, and pupae form a single series represent- ing one species, their transitory appcar- ance at the end of larval life is a clevia- tion from the normal course of meta-
morphosis wholly without a parallel.
The nature of these appendages is
shown in detail in figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4 is an external view and shows
how completely the appendage is articu-
lated to the side of the abdominal seg-
ment. Figure 5 is a frontal section of
the same and shows its internal structure. There is, as everywhere, an outer layer
of hypodermis (shown as a line of clots) to which the old and loosened cuticle,
which has not participated in the ai-ticu- lation, does not conform ; there are two tracheae passing out from the body cav-
ity into the appendage and repeatedly
branching [here, and penetrating the
mass of fat tissue which fills the entire cavity, and which is entirely similar to the fat filling the lateral extension of the abdominal segment which supports the
appendage: there are no other tissues
entering into its composition.
Two fairly distinct types of hyper-
metainorphosis have been distinguished
hitherto: one of these occurs among
the Hymenoptera and is apparently re-
stricted to egg parasites (2'latygaste~, Polynemq Te/eas, etc.): among these
the hatching of the egg occurs appar-
ently very early, ancl the earliest free stages are regarded as embryonic rather
than larval ; obviously, our caddis-fly
has nothing to do with this type.
The other type occurs among the
Neuroptera (Mantispa) and Coleoptera
(R/icazta., Mebe, ,Sita++s, etc.). Among these the larva hatches six-legged and
active (Campocleiform) and during its
larval life becomes footless, sluggish
ancl distended with accumulated fat
(Emciform) . These forms are held to
furnish the best of ontogenetic evidence as to the course of development of com-
plete n~etamorpl~osis among insects.
The striking change of form, which
here constitutes hypermetamorphosis,
occurs during the period of larval
growth, and is therefore unlike that
which we are describing.
There is also in those insects whose
transformation is most complete and
rapid, after the cessation of feeding on the part of the larva, a period of making over into the pupal form : this prepupal stage is due to the swelling and shorten- ing of the larva under its loosened cuti-
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August, IQ02] PSYCHE. 377
cle.
While tlie most striking forms of
Our caddis-fly, however, is apparently
prepupae hitherto described (Agrioytpus worthy to be ranked as an illustration of etc.) have been pointed out as cases of
a third type.
Besides the three normal
l~ypermetaniorphosis, it is to be noted developmental stages, it takes on in the that they are all forms strictly inten'ne- prepupal period characters which do not
diatc between the larva and the pupa,
belong to either larva or pupa, and are
and all exceedingly transitory, gradually not intermediate between these stages.
but quickly assumed and quickly lost
The possibility that my specimens did
again, and not truly hyperrnetamorpl~ic, not all belong to tlie same species, and in the same sense as are the two types
that these peculiar appendages of the
mentioned above.
prepupa may have belonged to the larva
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378 PSYCHE [~ugust, -1902
of the same species, is not to be entirely overlooked, even though it be highly
improbable. The discovery of such
appendages on a Trichopterous larva
would, indeed, be sufficiently surprising. The gills of Trichopterous larvae are
simple or tufted filaments; and the
larvae of the Hydroptilidae, so far as
known, do not possess even these.
Stout processes, articulated at the sides of the abdomen and arranged segmen-
tally are entirely unknown in this order, but occur in certain Coleopterous and
Ncuropterous larvae. Most like the
appendages of our prepupa are the
lateral filaments of the larvae of Sialidae, especially, of Sialis: here the several
jointed lateral processes are articulated to the sides of the abdomen. In
Sisyra and Climacia (family Hemero-
biidae of Neuropteraj are similar, jointed filaments directed toward the midventral line beneath the abdomen.
I am inclined to believe that these
appendages are inherited from some
remote, primitive Neuropterous type. I
regard them as belonging in the same
category as the large, transitory mandi- bles of the pupa.
RECORDS OF THE HABITS OF NEW MEXICAN COLEOPTERA. BY T. D. A. COCKERELL, EAST LAS VEGAS, N. MEX. Unless the contrary is specified, the
authority for the identification is in every case Mr. H. C. Fall, to whom I am
under the greatest obligations. When
the collector's name is not given, the
material was collected by the present
writer. Townsend = C. H. T. Town-
send. Wooton = E. 0. WooLon.
Cia7tiieZa sperata Lee. Riucon, July
5; numerous in the bed of the Rio
Grande, copulating.
Hippodamia skafa Muls. Mescal-
ero, on Chrysuthamnus gravedens &b-
ratus, Oct. 1.
Coccin~~ZZa oculaia Fab. Mescalero,
on Chrysotha?mms graveuZens glabraw
Oct. 2.
PsyZZob~ra 20-maculata Say. Rio
Ruidoso, about 6500 ft., on Rhisglabra,
July 24. (Townsend).
Chr~~sobothris cari?z$ennzs Lee. Rio
Ruidoso, about 6500 ft., on cut pine
branches, Aug. 4. (Townsend).
Chrj~subothris fiebizis Lec. (det. Wick- ham). In coitu on Pros@is gZa??duZosa,
May 13, 1892. (Townsend).
Acmceodera sparsa Horn. Organ
Mts., back of S. Augustine, on Chrysop-
sis viZ/&z. Sept. I. (Wooton) ; Rio
Ruidoso, about 6500 ft., on flowers of
Achilles miJIefoZi~~m, July 30. (Town-
send).
A. disj-uncta Fall. La Cueva, Organ
Mts. ( Sownsend) . I collected one at
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