130 INSECUTOR INSQTLE MENSTRUUS 



The second variety may be named variety butleri, new name. The 

 types are male and female from Honduras (Blancaneaux) in the British 

 Museum, and are described by Hampson under the misapplied name 

 stretchii Butler (Cat. Lep. Phal., iii, 486, 1 90 1 ). I possess a specimen 

 from Bastrop County, Texas, w^hich agrees nearly with Hampson's 

 description but I am not certain whether the form is really a variety of 

 omatrix or not. More material and larvae should be at hand. 



The species bella is considered to have two forms, one with orange 

 markings on fore wing {bella Linn.), the other with crimson markings 

 {venusia Dalman). Both have red hind v^ngs. The bella form occurs 

 on the mainland of North America from Massachusetts to Texas. Hamp- 

 son records a specimen from Yucatan ; but I have nothing from below 

 Texas. The venusta form is rare, but occasionally occurs. I have a 

 specimen from Kansas and Mr. F. Knab tells me that he took it occa- 

 sionally at Chicopee, Massachusetts, where bella was very common. It 

 occurs as the extreme variation in the darkening of the yellow color. In 

 the Greater Antilles, venusta predominates. In Jamaica, bella seems 

 not to occur ; but in Cuba, occasional specimens of fairly typical bella 

 may be found. 



Concerning the larvae, there is a marked difference. Omatrix larvae 

 (Tabasco, Mexico) are black with broken yellow lines and dots (Ins. Ins. 

 Men., ii, 115, 1914). Bella larva is orange with transverse black seg- 

 mental bands. In continental bella (New York, Florida) the bands are 

 more or less diffused and incomplete, being supplemented by dots before 

 and behind dorsally, broken off into scattered markings laterally. In the 

 insular venusta (Jamaica), the bands are neat and distinct, running down 

 to the feet and without supplemental markings. 



To return now to the Porto Rican form stretchii Butler. It has white 

 hind wangs, quite typical of omatrix. The fore wings are of two pat- 

 terns. Somewhat over half of my specimens have the crimson bands 

 and black dots typical of Venusta {stretchii). In others the dots are re- 

 duced to the condition of omatrix, while the red is reduced fully as much 

 as in omatrix from the Lesser Antilles, or suffuses the wing. From the 

 adult, stretchii would be unhesitatingly classified as a variety of ornatrix, 

 as has been done ; but the larvae tell another story. The specimens re- 

 ceived from Mr. Jones, collected at Youco, Porto Rico, June 30, 1914,, 

 on Crotalaria, are the orange, fully banded, typical venusia form as oc- 

 curring in Jamaica. These larvae have not been bred, but evidently must . 





