50 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The adult Tropidopria is particularly long-lived ; in one lot, which 

 emerged on September 21st, the majority lived until October 12th, and a 

 few survived until October 14th. 



Parthenoge?iesis. — Several pupae were removed from one puparium 

 and placed singly in gelatine capsules in order to secure unfertilized females. 

 These, when they emerged, were placed on puparia which had been reared 

 from larvse, and were known to be free from parasites. On September 

 1 8th 9 adults, all males, emerged from one puparium. 



Relative number of the sexes — Under natural conditions there is a 

 great preponderance of females. From one phial containing several 

 puparia, 298 parasites emerged; of these, 10 1 were males and 197 females. 

 Two lots, each from one puparium, were examined, the one was found to 

 contain 9 males and 35 females, the other 17 males and 29 females. 



MELITyEA THEONA MENETRIES AND ITS SYNONYMY. 



BY KARL R. COOLIDGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. 



Melitcea theojia was described by Menetries in his Enumeratio 

 corporum animalium Musei imperialis Academise Scientiarum Petropoli- 

 tanese, 1855 (P- S^' ^^^ ^ fig^ire, 5, on plate 2). Dr. Skinner has kindly 

 sent me a copy of the original description, which reads as follows : 



" 444. Melitcea theona nob. — Encore une espece de ce groupe 

 americain de nos artemis, athalia, etc., dont on compte deja plus d'une 

 dixaine d'especes. Sa taille est celle d'un petit individu de la M. athalia 

 Esp., c'est-a-dire d'un pouce deux lignes d'envergure. Au premier abord, 

 elle ressemble un peu a la M. editha Boisd. En dessus, les ailes sontd'un 

 brun noiratre, avec des bandes forme'es de taches jaunatres et fauves, 

 ainsi disposees : aux ailes superieures, la bande la plus externe est com- 

 posee de taches fauves, a I'exception de la 46, qui est plus grande et d'un 

 blanc jauratre ; la seconde bande, qui est plus interne et plus irreguliere, 

 est formee de 7 taches d'un blanc jaunatre ; plus pres de la base, on 

 remarque plusieurs taches fauves, separe'es entr'elles par une tache d'un 

 blanc jaunatre, placee diagonalement au milieu de la cellule discoidale, 

 puis une autre en dessous de cette cellule, plus poche de la base enfin une 

 3e allongee, dans la cellule et plus rapproche'e encore de la base. Les 

 ailes inferieures presentent une bande parallele au bord externe, comi)osee 

 de 8 taches fauves, ces taches sont arrondies a leur sommet et tronquees 

 inferieurement ; le disque est coupe par une autre bande parallele de 8 



Februarv, 1911 



