Dr. Clemens' Notes on Tkyridopteryx ephemcrseformls. 221 



NOTES ON THYRIDOPTERYX EPHEMER.EFORMIS. 

 BY BBACKENRIDGE CLEMENS, M. L>. 



Some cocoons were pent to Entomological Society from London Grove, 

 ( 'heater county, Pennsylvania, found suspended from the small branches 

 of the Norway Fir about the first week in August. The larvae were 

 about 1 inch lung, varying in color from brown to nearly black; the 

 head and three [succeeding?] rings were whitish mottled with black 

 or dark olive. The first imagos came out on the 10th of October. 

 The cocoons are covered exteriorly with the diverging terminal leaves 

 of the Norway Fir. 



In order to name this insect we find ourselves compelled to ask a ques- 

 tion propounded by Mr. Stephens in the Transactions of London Entomo- 

 logical Society as long ago as 1834, viz : " What is Sphinx ephemerse- 

 formis of Haworth ?'' It appears that the insect so named was 

 originally in the collection of Drury and when this was sold it passed 

 into the possession of Haworth and thence into the care of his friend 

 Stephens, at which time it was in a state of considerable mutilation. 

 Stephens records that it was captured in England fifty years before 

 his article was written. But this must have been an error, for it has 

 never been found there since the reported capture, and is not now 

 recorded as a British species. 



Being really an American insect, the writings of our American en- 

 tomologists have occasioned no little confusion, and made a reply diffi- 

 cult to the question answered by Stephens in 18b4, very clearly and 

 satisfactorily, notwithstanding the mutilated condition of his specimen. 



Mr. Stephens generic discription and the figure accompanying his 

 article already refered to, leaves no doubt of the specific identity of 

 the specimens sent by Mr. Wickersham and that to which he refers. 

 The following is the generic diagnosis given subsequently in his " 111. 

 Brit. Ent. Haust./' Vol. IV, which we select as preferable to that 

 given in the " Trans. Ent. Society of London." 



"Antennae short, deeply pectinated on both sides at the base, and 

 apparently simple at the apex; head small; eyes globose; rather promi- 

 nent; thorax very robust; abdomen also robust at the base and 

 gradually attenuated to the apex ; wings completely hyaline ; anterior 



