— 16— 



As far as I have noticed, the Lepidoptera are also verj scarce h 

 at least even the more common species have been rarely seen by me, bul 

 as an offset for the lack of species of other orders the Hymenoptera are 

 very plentiful. 



At one place, north of the town, wh impy field is full of wild 



plants, scores of species could be seen flying from flowerto flower in such 

 variety that I was greatly tempted recently, to collect them, instead of 

 continuing in my vain search for beetles. L. ]•'.. Hood 



Minot has found that even a small piece of the skin of a larva will 

 serve to identify it. In many of them the color of the skin is caused by 

 pigment which may permeate the entire chitinous substance or be confined 

 to the outer cuticular layer, where it is arranged, in combination with 

 the sculpture of the surface, into pretty microscopic patterns, which arc 

 different in every species. The larva.- were taken from alcohol, boiled in 

 concentrated potash and the chitinous layer mounted in balsam. In 

 Ihiiuiis archippus the dark brown transverse bands of (he mature larva are 

 caused by the coloration of the cuticle; but the color is not evenly dif- 

 fused, and is confined to small, sharply defined spaces which are elevated 

 in the center, so that the whole has a hilly appearance. A transverse sec- 

 tion showed that the coloring matter was contained in a very thin layer oi 

 lamellae upon the base of colorless chitin, In (')■//////,/ lavinia the fields 

 are also papillose but grouped in small spots. In Vanessa antiopa the skin 

 is evenly papillose ; in Grapta interrogationis variably so. In Limenitis 

 </isi/>/>its dark papilla? are scattered among the colorless majority. In 

 Grapta comma the papilla' are acute and somewhat spiniform and very 

 close together. In Papiliophilenor this is exaggerated, so as to cause the 

 ippearance of a thick fur. In Heliconia charitonia the papillae are more 

 sparse, but unusually thick and convex in profile, while usually they are 

 concave. A remarkable decrease in the number of papillae is found in 

 Eupioieia claudia, while in Agraulis vanities they are more numerous but 

 smaller. In Papilio ajax there are neatlyformed pointed papillae of variable 

 sizes, evenly spread over the surface. In Anisota stigma they form small 

 hillocks without distinct apices. In Datana ministra as well as in Cimbe* 

 timer icd na the rounded hillock like form of the colored spaces gives a reti- 

 culated appcaram e. \l i believes, that these modifications of the cuticle 



have some connection with unknown sensory organs, and that he has dis- 

 ci a valuable aid to the construction of a natural system. 



i< ompare Charles Sedgwick Minot, Archi\ fur mikroskopische Ana- 

 tomic, Hand 28, Seitc37 — [S, t. 7. — Ent. Nachrichten, XIII, 29. 



[onx B. Smith. 



