48 Journal New York Entomological Society. [voi. v. 



moths for their arrowy flight, which may balance the lower type of neura- 

 tion in the Hawk moths. A result of my recent studies is the recogni- 

 tion of the compact structure of the Sphingides, so that I return to a 

 view published by me a long time ago, but since practically abandoned, 

 that the family SphiiigidcB is probably only susceptible of tribal division. 

 Such an instance does not occur a second time in the Lepidoptera, the 

 series, certainly until we come to Acherontia, affording me no character 

 which seems of sub-family value, corresponding in any way to the fea- 

 tures which I have used as basis for these groups in the Saturniides. 



OETA FLORIDANA Neumoegen. 

 Bv Harrison G. Dyar, Ph.D. 



Mr. Neumoegen briefly described this form (Can. Ent., xxiii, 123) 

 as a variety of O. anrea Fitch, from the upper Indian River, Florida. 

 I have been acquainted with the larva for some time al Lake Worth and 

 Miami, but only recently bred them to imago. The larvae live grega- 

 riously in a large, loose and open web among the leaves of the bitter- 

 wood tree, Simariiba glatica. They are unusually long and slender, of 

 a dark brown color, and remaining motionless in the web, look like 

 pieces of sticks accidently caught in a spider's web. The pupa is 

 formed in the same location and is colored in the same manner. 



O. floridana, larz'a. Slender, the abdominal segments elongated, one-half 

 longer than thick, the thoracic segments not unusually elongated. Head rounded, 

 scarcely bilobed, prominent and proportionately large ; black, a labial line, bases of 

 antennae, and the tubercles of the setae white ; width 2 mm. Thoracic feet large and 

 well developed, the abdominal ones small, short, the crotchets simple, distributed 

 rather regularly over the surface of the plant, not in rows. Setae simple, the sub- 

 primaries present. The prothoracic shield is united with the pre-spiracular tubercle, 

 forming a large shield, bearing the usual nine setae ; subventral tubercle with three 

 setae. Mesolhorax with ia and ib, iia and iib, iv and v approximate, iii remote, vi 

 with two setx. Abdominal setjc somewhat modified on account of the lengthening 

 of the segments ; iv and v are drawn far apart and, though not more out of line than 

 is frequent, v is slightly the more dorsad of the two, which, together with its remote 

 position, suggests somewhat the condition found in the Sphingida:. Tubercles i and 

 ii are nearly in line, iv is small and vi very large ; vii is composed of one large and 

 two small setae above the base of the foot. Otherwise normal. 



Color chocolate brown ; a broad orange-brown dorsal band, reaching to tubercle 

 ii and along joints 3 to 12, contains a dorsal row of small white spots and a similar 

 border on each side; a row of tiny white dots above tubercle iii; another broad 

 brown band subventrally, from tubercles v to vii and joints 4 to 11, bordered above 

 by a narrow pulverulent white line ; a dark spot on tubercle vi ; spiracles pale ; setaj 

 white; length 25 to 30 mm. 



