177 



I hope to get a good supply of Say's Hipparchia semidea for 

 you. Say has pretty correctly figured it in his American Ento- 

 mology, Vol. Ill, PI. 50, and states that it " inhabits the V/hite 

 Mountains of N. H., and appears to be limited to that inhos- 

 pitable region," which I believe is strictly true. Boisduval, in 

 his Icones historiques des Lepidopteres nouveaux, etc., Vol. 

 I, p. 197, under Chionohas AUo^ makes the following blundering 

 remark: '•^J'ai regu de M. John LeConte, sous Ic noyn d'Eri- 

 tiosa (.^) de Harris (^U) un individu pris dans les montagnes 

 calcaires (JH^ de New Hampshire^ qui me parait appartenir a 

 cette espece." Boisduval's Also^ published in 1832, is very pos- 

 sibly identical with Say's semidea, published in 182<S ; and if 

 so, the latter uame alone can stand. The specimens which 

 LeConte sent to Boisduval he received from me, with Say's 

 ^geria exitiosa ; whence, probably, the blunder of the specific 

 name. My specimen of Hipfarcliia semidea was taken on the 

 summit of Mt. Washington, one of the loftiest peaks of the 

 White Mountains, which, by the way, are not '■'•montagnes 

 calcaires.'''' 



HARRIS TO DOUBLEDAY. 



Cambridge, Oct. 29, 1849. 



I have now a few insects for vou, and am seekino- a safe con- 

 veyance of the parcel containing them. I think that I shall 

 venture to send you a lot of follicles of Oiketicus \_coniferarum 

 Harr. mss.] containing female pupa cases, filled with eggs. 

 Should these reach you safely and unhatched, you can hang the 

 cases in some trees, and thus probably get a brood or two of the 

 insects next spring. The larvas eat the leaves of many kinds 

 of trees, but especially those of cypress, larch and hemlock, 

 also of linden, maple, and even of fruit-trees. The species 

 is probably the same one noticed by you in your acceptable 

 letter in the Entomologist for May, 1841, pp. 97-8. Abbot's 

 figures are caricatures rather than likenesses of this insect. 



