80 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



one word more on l. pseudargiolus. 

 Dear Sir, — 



It occurred to me to examine the genital organs of a black violacea, one 

 day last week, and to my surprise, the individual was a male. Since then 

 I have taken eight other blacks, and all are males. As it has been taken 

 for granted that the black examples of Lycae?ia were in all cases female 

 (at any rate where there is a blue male) I thought it best to send one of 

 these so taken by me to Dr. Hagen for examination. And he replies : — 

 " This morning I have carefully examined the abdomen of L. violacea. It 

 is without any doubt a male. The organs are so fairly protruded that no 

 section is needed." Now I have doubts whether there is any black 

 female to this species. In a paper on Sexual Dimorphism in Butterflies, 

 1877, Mr. Scudder states that "wherever partial dimorphism is confined 

 to one sex, it is always to the female ; there seems to be no exception to 

 the rule." 



I have thought it possible that the female of violacea deposited its eggs 



on Dogwood flowers, as there seemed to be no other flower in bloom here 



at this season long enough to allow the maturing of the larvae, which, so 



far as is known, live wholly on flowers, and three days ago I tied a female 



in a gauze bag over the end of a branch of Dogwood, enclosing three of 



the flower heads. Next day I found about forty eggs had been laid, some 



on each of the flower heads, and among the flowerets, which are still in 



bud only, and search among the Dogwoods subsequently made led to the 



discovery of several eggs. We therefore have the food plants of the three 



broods, Cornus in spring, Cimicifuga in June and Actinomeris in fall. 



W. H. Edwards. 

 Coalburgh, W. Va., April 16th, 1878. 



Errata. — In the description of Tricholita fistula, published in the 

 March number, read : Orbicular spot concolorous, oval, black margined ; 

 reniform pipe-shaped, bowl turned to the base of the wing, white, broken. 

 — Leon F. Harvey, Buffalo, N. Y. 



