128 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



ON DIADEMA MISIPPUS, Linn, IN FLORIDA. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



About the middle of last November Miss Annie M. Wittfeld, whose 

 untimely death I have spoken of elsewhere, wrote me that she had taken 

 a butterfly of a species which she had never seen before, while it was 

 laying eggs on purslane. She confined the butterfly with the plant and 

 obtained 74 eggs. It was like a Danais, she said, but the caterpillars 

 were like a Vanessan. I wrote her it probably was Misippus, a single 

 male of which Dr. Wittfeld had taken several years before. The female 

 of this species is entirely unlike the male in colour and markings, and 

 really imitates a pale Danais. Meanwhile eggs and larva; at every moult 

 were put in alcohol for me, and after my letter was received Miss Witt- 

 feld inflated two mature larvae, and with all these stages sent me living 

 papas, so that I shall be able to illustrate the history of this curious 

 butterfly. This was the last thing Miss Wittfeld did for me, and is an 

 example of the intelligent and painstaking work she was accustomed to. 



Misippus is a common species in south-eastern Asia, in Australia, 

 Africa, in parts of South America, and is found in some of the West India 

 Islands. Drury figured the male, and gave New York as one of the 

 localities, but, except these few Florida examples, I know nothing of the 

 occurrence of the species within the United States. As the food plant is 

 everywhere one of the commonest of weeds, it is not improbable that from 

 Florida Misippus may spread northward. 



In Papilio 1, p. 30, I mentioned the capture of the male spoken of 

 under the name D. Bolina, Linn. Bolina is an allied but distinct species. 

 The one taken in Florida is Misippus. 



SOME NEW NOCTUID^E. 



BY A. R. GROTE, A. M., BREMEN, GERMANY. 



A grot is agilis, n. s. 



Two males in good condition received from Mr. J ames Fletcher, from 

 Vancouver, belong to a decidely different species from my semiclarata, 

 Essay, Plate 1, Fig 9, though allied, as also to Californian gravis, and our 

 Eastern venerabilis. Antennae brush-like. Gray, with a brown tinge. 

 Lines obliterate. Fore wings yellowish gray fuscous, brownish, with a red 



