20 INSECUTOR INSCITI/E MENSTRUUS 



THE LARVi« OF XANTHOPASTIS TIMAIS CRAMER 



{Lepidoptera, Noctuida) 

 By HARRISON G. DYAR 



This widely spread and very constant species (as adult) has a number 

 of different larvae. So different are they that after describing one from 

 Florida (Joum. N. Y. Ent. Soc, x, 125, 1902), I received others from 

 Cuba, I could not believe they belonged to the same species, and pub- 

 lished a correction Qoufn- N. Y. Ent. Soc, xi, 104, 1903), repudiating 

 the first identification. How^ever, the larvae were bred, and there is now 

 no doubt of their identity. There was none then, either, in fact, but I 

 could not believe it. How many forms this larva has 1 have no idea. 

 Guenee's figure (colored),^ from a drawing by Abbot, is utterly unlike 

 any of the forms known to me. It has a black head, body whitish, with 

 three streught black bands on each segment. If this was taken from the 

 form occurring in Georgia, and that is like the Florida one, as it certainly 

 ought to be, then the figure is a gross misrepresentation. Yet there are 

 certJiin facts about this drawing that forbid us to discard it at once. Pos- 

 sibly the original figure by Abbot was uncolored, and Guenee's artist, in 

 preparing the colored plate, failed to add the orange head and tail. The 

 absence of the conspicuous tubercles in the drawing agrees with the Flor- 

 ida form. Curiously enough, the pattern of markings represents a sort of 

 synthetic type. The Florida form has a dorsal and subventral spot on 

 the anterior end of each segment, a band on posterior border ; the Cuban 

 form heis four rows of spots, the posterior row of larger spots. Combin- 

 ing there we get, synthetically, a row of bands, much as in Guenee's 

 figure. Admitting the possibiKty that such a larva may exist, I am rather 

 inclined to the opinion that the artist has overdone the drawing m the 

 matter of bands. 



The Cuban form was described by Gundlach (Ent. Cubana, i, 304, 

 1886) and by me (Joum. N. Y. Ent. Soc, xi, 104, 1903). The same 

 form occurs in Jamaica and was briefly noted by Mrs. Swainson (Journ. 

 N. Y. Ent. Soc, ix, 8 1 , 1 90 1 ). I have a fine blown larva from Kings- 

 ton from the Schaus collection. A condensed description of the Antilleein 

 larva is given by Hampson (Cat. Lep. Phal. Brit. Mus., v, 460, 1905). 

 It differs conspicuously by the large black tubercles and the numerous 

 small yellow spots, no bands. The differences are what are usually called 



'Copied without color by Chenu, Encycl. d'Hist. Nat., ii, 111, 1857. 



