30)0 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



OBSERVATIONS UPON BOMBYX CUNEA, DRURY, ETC. 



BY THE REV. THOMAS W. FYLES, SOUTH QUEBEC. 



Messrs. Dyar, Smith, and Grote have given us much interesting 

 information concerning Bembyx cunea, Drury, and insects associated 

 with it. I have hoped that further particulars would be forthcoming, for 

 the position these insects have held in our Entomological lists has not 

 been satisfactorily established. 



It is very evident that much perplexity in regard to cunea, and the 

 rest, has existed from Walker's day down to the present time. 



Let us recall some of the facts connected with them that have come 

 under our notice. 



In 1770, Drury figured a moth which he named Bombyx cunea — 

 probably from a fancied resemblance in the coloration of the insect to 

 that of the spotted carriage-dog of Europe. He did not show the hind 

 tibias of the insect. 



Eighty-five years afterwards, Walker described certain insects that 

 he found in the British Museum collections. Six of them from Georgia 

 and two from New York he classified as Spilosoma cunea, believing them 

 to belong to the species figured by Drury. Three of them from Georgia 

 he described as a new species, under the name of Spilosoma congrua. 

 He did not describe the hind tibiae of either kind. 



It was Harris who originated the generic term, Hyphantria. In his 

 " Insects Injurious to Vegetation," edited by Flint (1S62), p. 358, we 

 read : 



" This species was first described by me in the seventh volume of 

 the New England Farmer, page 33, where I gave it the name of Arctia 

 textor — the weaver — from the well-known habits of its caterpillar. 

 Should it be found expedient to remove it from the genus Arctia, \ 

 propose to call the genus which shall include it, Hyphantria — a Greek 

 name for weaver — and place in the same genus the many-spotted ermine- 

 moth, Arctia pufictatissima, of Sir J. E. Smith, which is found in the 

 Southern States, and agrees with our weaver in habits." 



Harris says nothing about the posterior tibiae of either textor or 

 punctatissima. The weaving habits of the larvje suggested the names he 

 gave : Hyphantria (Gr.), a female weaver ; textor (L.), a male weaver. 

 He believed that punctatissima and textor were distinct, specifically, one 

 from the other. 



