- i86— 



COCOON OF C OMPHALE. 



At the November meeting of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 

 Mr. Hy. Edwards exhibited the cocoon of this species as a supplement to 

 the preceeding paper. It is a clear lemon yellow, oval, somewhat flat- 

 tened and fastened to the underside of a leaf. There is a basis consisting 

 of a thin silkv fabric, and on this are ranged the long yellow hair that 

 give the color to the whole. These hairs are long, apparently nearly equal 

 in length, and furnished with minute hooks and bristles, enabling them 

 to felt readily. Interpersed, are a few hair with black bushy tips and 

 sometimes with also a circle of black bristles at middle. It would seem 

 therefore that the larva must be somewhat Arctia like. The pupa is pale, 

 rather sordid in color, with the wings, antennas and legs well defined. 

 It resembles very much the Orgyia pupa in color and shape, except that 

 the abdomen is blunt and terminates abruptly. Both cocoon and pupa 

 indicate a strong Bombycid relationship, not with the Arctiidas however, 

 but rather with the Dasychirae. 



Note on Papilio Asterias Fab:^ 

 By Fr. Tepper. 

 I have brought with me this evening some specimens of Papilio 

 listerias to show some of the variations, the species is subject to. In the 

 first place I do not think it has ever been recorded that asterias occurs 

 with a blind ocellus; that is with the orange anal spot without any trace 

 of a black spot. I have such a specimen in my collection bred from the 

 larva in Flatbush several years ago — the specmien as will be seen is in 

 fine condition and leaves no question of a doubt that this form occurs. 

 Moreover it is a male specimen, and this sex is much less given to branch 

 off into aberrations than are the females. Besides we have what might 

 be called inter-gradations, specimens in which the spot assumes different 

 shapes, such as lobes or mere specks, all of which tends to show that 

 there is a predisposition to take on abnormal forms. Now this is the 

 main fact I desired to establish; but while on the subject I would point 

 out some other variations into which the species is apt to run, and these 

 are more frequently confined to the female sex. The yellow bands, as is 

 generally known, are not so heavy in the females as in the males, al- 

 though occasional females have these bands just as heavy as the males. 

 I have found that the inner yellow band on the secondaries of the females 

 is subject to very striking variations — in fact disappearing altogether in 

 some instances. The specimens I exhibit will show this tendency very 

 well indeed, as they range from the heavily banded ones to those lack- 

 * Read before ihe Brooklyn Entomological Society, Oct. 6, 1885. 



