82 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 'O2 



Identity of Hemaris Tenuis and H. Diffinis. 



By ELLISON A. SMYTH, JR., Blacksburg, Va. 



I received additional confirmation this spring, that Hemaris 

 tennis and H. dijjinis were seasonal forms of one species, and 

 that the effect of winter upon either form in the pupa state, is 

 to produce //. tennis. 



Temiis is the spring form, and diffinis the late summer form 

 from eggs of either form. 



In my article of the same caption as this, which appeared in 

 the ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS for November, 1900, on page 585, 

 I spoke of obtaining eggs from a captive female tennis on June 

 i, 1900, from which about thirty dijfinis emerged by July 2oth. 

 I ended the paragraph as follows : ' The balance of these pupae 

 at this writing (Sept. i3th) seem inclined to winter. Whether 

 they will emerge in the spring as H. tennis or H. diffmis remains 

 to be seen." 



I carefully kept to themselves these pupae of tennis parent- 

 age, the bulk of which had emerged as dijfinis, and on Ma)' 

 25, 1901, they commenced to emerge. Eighteen imagines ap- 

 peared : Of these, thirteen are small typical, light yellow, even 

 margined H. tennis ; two are buff yellow like dijfinis, with, 

 however, very slight emargination ; three have slight but dis- 

 tinct emargination and are white yellow like tennis. All were, 

 of course, smoky when they emerged, and those killed at once 

 retain the cloudy areas. 



Thus, early summer eggs from H. tennis produced //. dijfinis 

 later the same summer and pupae from the same brood, lasting 

 over the winter produced //. tennis, the parent form, the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



1 have already abundantly shown that eggs of //. diffmis, 

 hibernating as pupae, produce H. tennis the following spring. 

 The question of identity needs no further proof, though it will 

 be interesting to try the effect of artifficial cold on pupae from 

 tennis eggs, which normally produce dijfinis, to see if tennis 

 will result. This I have not done yet. 



The above specimens and the others illustrating my breed- 

 ing experiments are all in my collection carefully labelled. 



