THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 87 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS UPON BOMBYX CUNEA, 



DRURY, ETC. 



•BY THE REV. THOMAS W. FYLES, SOUTH QUEBEC. 



To make my way clear I beg to state the objects I had in view in 

 writing the article that appeared under my name in the number of the 

 Canadian Entomologist for last May. They were these : 



I. — To establish the identity of the Spilosoma Antigone of Strecker 



with the Spilosoma congrtia of Walker. 

 II. — To show that Dr. Riley's series of wings in Fig. 87, Packard's 

 Forest Insects^ does not afford a proof conclusive that amea, 

 textor, pimctata 2iTi6. punctatissitna are one and the same 

 species of insect. 

 III. — To bring into notice a Spilosoma which answers to the 

 figure given by Drury of his Bombyx cunea. 

 I. — ^It is admitted that Afitigone and congrtia are identical. I need 

 not say anything more on that point. 



II. — I have always looked upon Riley's series of wing-figures with 

 distrust — much as I should regard a catena brought forward by a contro- 

 vertialist to support an erroneous opinion ; and, in the paper I have 

 mentioned, I endeavoured to show the weakness of his position by stating 

 that a like series of wing-figures could be taken from specimens of moths 

 raised from " black ground-feeding larvse." It has been said " there is no 

 dotibt at all of the identity of all these forms" and if a positive assertion 

 could have settled the matter, it would have been settled ; but a chain is 

 not stronger than its weakest links, and Sir James Smith was not sure of 

 the identity of punctatissima with Drury's congrna, and Dr. Ottolengui 

 gives voice to a doubt, which others beside himself have felt, and says : 

 " Is it possible that the immaculate and the spotted forms of cunea may 

 be distinct?" (By these "forms" I understand him to ii\e.a.n puncta- 

 tissima and textor.) 



Smith and Abbot give us a picture of their Phalcena punctatissima. 

 There is an irregularly spotted male insect, a spotless female, and a larva 

 feeding upon a sprig of mulberry. Quite a fancy sketch ! And this is 

 the description appended : 



"Ph. Bombyx elinguis, alis deflexis corporeque niveis nigro punc- 

 tatis, thorace utrinque lunula nigra." 



And under this is a note (the italics are mine) : 



