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Vol. XXXV. LONDON, MAY, 1903. No. 5 



NOTES O.M CANADIAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS APAJV- 



TESIS (ARCTIA), WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 



TO THE LARV.-^. 



BY ARTHUR GIBSON, DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY, CENTRAL EXPERIMENTAL 



FARM, OTTAWA. 



This paper is not by any means intended to be a full treatment of the 

 species of the genus Apantesis^ occurring in Canada. There is so much yet 

 to be learned about many of the forms that the preparation of such an article 

 is still quite impossible. The intention, therefore, is merely to present the 

 rather incomplete notes we have made at Ottawa, with the hope that they 

 may be of some use to students who are, or who may become, interested in 

 these insects, and also that it may be seen at a glance what work has been 

 done on some of the species, as well as what is still lacking with regard 

 to others. There is considerable doubt as to the validity of some of the 

 species of this genus, and these doubts can only be dispelled by careful 

 and extensive breeding from the egg, taking accurate notes of the larvae 

 (in their different stages), the pupae, etc. Large series of many of the so-called 

 species will have to be bred before definite knowledge can be acquired. 



The larvte of this genus, generally speaking, are much the same in 

 appearance. They are usually blackish caterpillars, with spreading tufts 

 of black or reddish bristles. Taking each species separately, they are not 

 difficult to study, but when one begins to compare large series of closely 

 related species, the task is not by any means so easy. Even among those 

 species which have been most studied, we do not seem to have any con- 

 stant characters whereby to se})arate the larvie, and, m view of our limited 

 knowledge of these creatures, a great amount of work is still to be done. 

 As it should not be difficult to obtain most of the moths where they occur, 

 it is to be hoped that local collectors will endeavour to secure eggs from 

 captured females, and thus provide the means for a better knowledge of 

 the earlier stages of these interesting insects. 



In Canada there are, as far as we have been able to find out, at least 

 20 moths belonging to the genus Apa?itesis, and specimens of all of these 



