310 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



chooses Heradeum lanatiim, which is pungent, juicy and of rank growth, 

 quite as opposite to the dry, stringy fern-stem as one could well imagine. 

 Heracleui7i grows in great perennial clusters in many places at Rye, some 

 having been undisturbed for a quarter of a century and never burned over. 

 Even with, such ideal conditions, and in a searcli that has gone on 

 regularly for twelve years to detect the borings of Hai-7-isi'K there has 

 never once appeared a Papaipema larva working in it, nor has this species 

 occurred from any other local source. In practically the same locations 

 Pteris grows abundantly, each year tenanted by goodly colonies of lis 

 particular form. Evidently, at the ]jresent time there is no change of 

 food-plant. So the experiment of introducing the fern-borers at various 

 stages to a Heradeum diet, which is easy in its hollow stalk, was repeated- 

 ly made, and always with negative results. Cross-breeding was not 

 attempted for lack of materia', and such artificial resorts hardly confirm 

 natural conditions. While this diagnosis of appetite is not to be con- 

 sidered of value specificaly, there are features in the generalized larva 

 which point to this form being the stem of the various yellow sjiecies. 

 certainly its taste for a Cryptogam m'ght have been brought down from 

 those remote ages of the past, that are clothed in the Cenozoic haze we 

 would so gladly pierce. Finding ourselves, then, in contact with this 

 representative form, whose history and anatomy must have an important 

 bearing in a study of the phylogeny cf the genus, we ask to be allowed to 

 introduce still another aristocrat. 



Papaipema pteris'ti, n. sp. — Form and habits typical ; ground colour 

 yellow. Primaries show the usual markings and contrasts. T. p. line 

 bends but little, its geminate form hardly discernible, the outside one a 

 purple fascia, though in many specimens it might not be regarded as such. 

 Reniform broken, jiartly concolorous, only tlie two inner sections white- 

 marked. The orbicular and claviform offer the best superficial character, 

 the latter is not divided ; orbicular irregularly quadrate, and its attachment 

 to the upper part of claviform produces a conspicuous, brightly-white 

 blotch or bar, longer than the reniform. Secondaries lighter, clouded at 

 the margin. The discal spot is not noticed from above. The male 

 structures are fitly representative of the typical form. They differ from 

 verona, though not perceptibly from Han isii ox purpiirifascia. Expanse, 

 31-32 mm.; 1.25 in. Tliree specimens furnished the description. A 

 co-type will be placed in the National Museum. 



