xMEMOlKS OF TllH NATIONAL ACADEMY UF .SCIENCES. lo7 



prick of its spiiu's has no poisonous oHVrt wliuttn'or. Mr. Ahliot tolls us that this caterpillar is 

 calK'd in Virginia the hickorv-horucd devil, and that, when dislurix'd, it draws up its head, 

 shakinijor strikino- it from side to side; which attitude uiv(>s it so formidable an aspect that no 

 one. ln' affirms, will venture to handle it. ])eopl(» in o-cneral dreading;' it us much as a rattlesnake.'' 

 (Amer. Eiit.. I. p. I'MO. ) 



Walhue. in his •■ Darwinis.u," remarks that the green color of this larva "suggests that its 

 ancestors were om-e protectively colored, hut. growing too large to l)e effectually concealed, 

 it acquired the habit of shaking its head about in order to frighten away its enemies, and 

 ultimately developed the crown of tentacles as an addition to its terrifying powers" (p. 210). 

 This is somewhat fanciful, for the catei-pillarsof Citheronia have not only a "crown of tentacles," 

 but similar spines at the end of the body, with smaller ones along the middle of the body, and the 

 luxuriant armature is evidently inherited from its Adelocephala ancestors. The great develop- 

 ment of the spines may, as we have suggested (Pt. I. p. IG), have arisen in response to the stimuli 

 of blows on the more exposed parts of the body. 



Sexual difei'ences in the larvce of Citheronia^ etc. — Burmeister, in referring to the larva of 

 C. hri^sotiu whicli he considers as a variety of C. nyalis. speaks of the caterpillar of C. regal its 

 figured in Abbot and Smith as representing an individual of the feminine sex. His own figure, 

 however (PI. XIX, fig. 3), is that of a male, "toujours plus petit dans ce genus." 



PaniKites. — In the Loew collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology is a large species 

 of Tachina, Belcosia hifmeiata, bred from 0. vrfjaJix. 



Variationx: \'ar. infernalis Streckcr. Head, body, and legs, deep orange or l)rick-red; 

 wings above and below of the same color. Fore wings slate colored in the interspaces, only the 

 veins red: a large red subapical spot near the costa, also a smaller one midway between it and 

 the inner margin. Bred from a blackish-blue larva of the usual appearance. Maryland and 

 North Cartdina. 



CITH:Ti:RON"I^A. I3RISSOXII (Boir^du^-f^l i. 



Ceratocampa brissotii Boisdcval, ,\iuiales tSoc. Ent. France (4) VIII, p. .SIL'. IStJS.— Kirby, Syii. Cat. Lep. 



Het. I, p. 742. 1892. 

 Ceratocampa rt-galiK var. hrhsotii Bcrmeister, Pescr. R^p. Argentine, Lep. .\tlas, p. 45, pi. xix, fig. 3. 1879. 



Liirra. 



(PI. XVI, fig. .3.) 



Burmeister, Descr. Rep. Argentine, Lep., p. 4-5, .\tlas, pi. xix, fig. 3. 1879. ( ,? drawn from a drie.i l)lo\vn 

 specimen.) 



The figure of the larva (PI. XVI, fig, 3) is undoubtedly drawn from a poorly preserved 

 .specimen. In fact the armature of the larva? of Citheronia figured by Burmeister seems to be inac- 

 curately drawn, Burmeister states that it diflers from the larva of 0. laocoon {C. ixion) in hav- 

 ing longer spines, though otherwise the same, while they are of the same orange color, with a 

 black tip. 



Three 5 9 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology-, brought by Prof. L. Agassiz on the 

 Thayer expedition, exactly agree with BoisduvaFs description. It diflers from C. regalis, to 

 which it is closely allied, in the middle series of yellow spots being united into a continuous band, 

 and in the presence of a submarginal zigzag orange-red line. 



It appears to be a rarer species than any other in Brazil. 



Fi'ik] plant. — In Brazil, according to Burmeister. it feeds on Exoecaria higlandulosa., an 

 euphorbiaceous plant. 



Gi-ix/raphlcal dixfrihut'oti. — Lagoa Santa. Cantagalli: this latter town is a few miles up in 

 the interior from Rio Janeiro. (Museum of Comparative Zoology.) 



