12 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., '09. 



Notes on the study of some Iowa Catocalae. 



By R. R. ROWLEY, Louisiana, Mo., and L. BERRY, Vinton, Iowa. 



On the first of June, several well-grown larvae of Catocala 

 parta were found feeding on small-leaf willow by the Junior 

 Author. When changed to a broader leaf species of Salix 

 these caterpillars seemed to experience no inconvenience, but 

 finished their larval life and pupated in due time. The "worm" 

 is very dark brown, with longitudinal bands of lighter and 

 darker brown. The mid-dorsal band of dark gray, forming 

 a series of elliptical and rhomboidal expansions. The subdorsal 

 bands are dark brown and wavy, with light diagonal lines cross- 

 ing at the segment edges. A wide, gray line is below the subdor- 

 sal and a dark brown narrower line below, shaped like a string 

 of elongate lunules. It is somewhat lighter below this band. 

 The ventral side is pale gray, with the characteristic black 

 spots. The true and pro legs are gray. The head, gray with 

 a narrow intensely-black dash on the side. The head is some- 

 what bilobed above and slightly flattened as in caret. There is 

 a hump over the 5th abdominal segment, as in cara, but dark 

 brown in color. The top of the 8th abdominal segment has a 

 cross ridge as in all the red-winged willow Catocalae. The 

 tubercles are gray. The lateral row of setae or short bristles 

 is as in cara and amatrix. The specimen described was two 

 and a fourth inches long. Other larvae were obtained on the 

 8th. The larva of parta can be readily recognized by its very 

 dark color and cara pattern. 



One larva of parta taken on June 6th, in color and mark- 

 ings, recalled the caterpillar of innubens, but the band was nar- 

 row and black. The chrysalis of this larva produced on the 

 8th of July an unusually dark imago. The larvae of not only 

 parta, but of amatrix and piatri.r, were found on the bodies 

 of willow and walnut trees, not bushes, and from four to eight 

 feet above the ground, the two former on willow, of course, 

 and the latter on walnut. 



The imagoes of parta, like those of amatrix and relicta, 

 were plentiful throughout July, August and September in the 



