THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, SI 



ALYPIA MARIPOSA, LARVA. 



BY HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK. 



Mr. J. B. Lembert has kindly sent me some alcoholic larvae of 

 A. mariposa, and I may record a few points in comparison with the 

 eastern A. octomaculata. Mr. Lembert has given the life history 

 quite fully in the December number of the Canadian Entomologist, 

 but our species have not been compared. The larva is especially 

 interesting, as being the second one discovered in this genus. We 

 have long been familiar with that of A. octomaculata, and everybody 

 has described it ; but the other species, though somewhat numerous, 

 have remained unknown. 



Mr. Lembert has sent me specimens which appear to be in 

 stages IL, IIL, IV. and VI. The larvae are noctuiform as is 

 octomaculata with joint 12 enlarged. The tubercles are of the normal 

 noctuid arrangement,* large, low-conical, rather less developed than 

 in octomaculata, with single, large, smooth setae. The width of head 

 by calculation would be for the six stages — 0.32, 0.50, 0.77, 1.2, 1.8, 

 2.8 mm. (ratio, 0.65). The measurements of the examples before me 

 are 0.5, 0.75, 1.2 and 2.8 mm. 



As compared with octomaculata, the markings are more general- 

 ized. Until the last stage, the larva is very plainly marked ; besides 

 the black tubercles, there is only present a diffuse white dorsal and 

 stigmatal band, gradually becoming more distinct. In the last stage 

 there are added four transverse black bands on each segment, instead 

 of the eight of octomaculata, and tliese bands are confined to the 

 space between the dorsal and stigmatal lines, and the two central 

 ones on each segment are fused together. The abdominal leg plates 

 are pale, instead of black, as in octomaculata. The ground colour is 

 duller than in the eastern species. Instead of the bluish-white 

 ground with the transverse orange bands on joints 5, 6, 7, and 12 

 of octomaculata, the whole ground is dull orange, relieved only by 



* L, anterior subdorsal; IL, posterior, more nearly lateral; III., lateral above 

 spiracle; IV., stigmatal posterior; V., anterior, and VI., posterior inferior sub- 

 ventral; VII., three setK in a triangle on leg plate; VIII., near medio-ventral line. 



See article by Wilhelm Muller in Zool. Jahrblicher for 1886, on larva; of 

 South American Nymphalida?. Tubercles VI. to \'III. do not appear charac- 

 teristically on these specialized butterflies, and are not described by Muller. 



