123 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 



Melit^A Chalcedon is the largest of its genius in California, ranging 

 from i}4 to 2^ inches in expanse. It is rather variable in its markings, es- 

 pecially on the primaries, where the spots vary from white to yellow, and run 

 tnto each other and. play at hide and seek with the red ones ; but it is always 

 very gay and handsome in its coat of black and red and yellow. Occasionally, 

 also, marked cases of suffusion are found, where the fore wings are wholly suf- 

 fused with a beautiful crimson, which obliterates the light markings. The eo-o-s 

 are light yellow, nearly globular, and very small, considering the size of 'the 

 butterfly. They are carelessly laid on the upper or under side of the leaves, in- 

 differently. In continement they are as freely deposited on the gauze bag as 

 npon the plant. The larvse are spiny and wooUv ; rather restless in habit, 

 moving about a good deal, and are free feeders, eating various scrophulaceous 

 plants, also a wild i jse, but are oftenest found on Scrophtilaria Caltfornica, 

 a perennial herb, and on Pentstemon atitirrhinoides, a deciduous bush, lii 

 Mexico I have found the larvae feeding in January, but in California they do not 

 appear till April, and the butterfly is on the wing early in May. W. G. Wright, 

 Hadenella. n. g. Small, allied in form to Oncocnemis Gracillima. 

 Front with a central navel-shaped or sub-cordate tubercle. Labial palpi short : 

 third joint very small, hardly exceeding the infra'-clypeal plate. Tongue mod- 

 erate. Eyes naked, unlashed. Tibia; unarmed. Abdomen smooth , a minute 

 tuft at base. Vestiture scaly. Thorax thickly squamous behind. Antenna; 

 simple, 



Hadenella Pergentilis. n, s. Resembles Hadena Cylindrica. 

 Gray, shaded with fawn or ochrey. Orbicular oblique, pale ringed, with dark 

 center. Reniform transverse, blackish. Claviform indicated, like orbicular. 

 Lines obsolete. A black costal mark before the fawn-rolored apical reo-ion. 

 Terminal space with a rufous central shade, marked with blackish at internal 

 angle. Veins dotted. Fringes gray and pale, lined at base. Hind wings pale 

 fuscous, Washington Territory. At Mr. Neumoegen's request, I described 

 this little species before giving him t.he Ai'octiiidcE of my late collections. — A. R. 

 Grote. 



Hibernating Butterflies. The spring has been very backward, 

 judging from the condition of vegetation.' To-day (May 8) I noticed a compar- 

 atively tresh specimen of the Camberwell Beauty, certainly a hibernated ' 

 example, on the flowers of the Kentucky currant. I have observed this butter- 

 fly ( Vanessa Antiopa) hibernating on Staten Island many years. Wintered 

 examples have the veins denuded on the brown field of the wings. A, R. Grote. 

 Grapta and Calephelis. I have shown that there was a botanical 

 genus Polyg-onuin when Hubner described Polygonia and that, therefore, Kirby's 

 term Grapta should be retained for the lepidopterous genus. As to the 

 Erycinid genus Calephelis, this is not a pseudogenus, based on illusory com- 

 parative characters, as are many of Mr. Scudder's, but Borealis and Caenis differ 

 trom Nymphidia by the hairy eyes. Callicista, Gr., is one of these bastard 

 genera, which have only a sectional signification if we base, as we must, our 

 genera upon natural characters. A. R. GrOTE, 



Thecla l^ta. In the woods, near my house, to-day I took a ? 7". 

 l(Eta, the second example I have taken here in eighteen years. Lye. vio:acea 

 was abundant,* W, H, EDWARDS, Coalburgh, April 17, 1883. 



Curious Variety of Telea Polyphemus, On the i6th of June I 

 captured at Fort Lee, on the Hudson, a very singular specimen of this insect, 

 which deserves a permanent record. It was wholly of a pale ochreous tint, 

 smaller than the usual size, and with no appearance whatever of the trans- 

 parent vitreous spots, so characteristic of the species. The bluish lunules of 

 the secondaries are much^narrower l^an usual, and the yellow spot which gen- 

 erally encloses the transparent space^i^^duced to a small ovate apa,que patch,. 

 The specimen is a male, and was af rest" on an oak tree, having Just emerged 

 from the chrysalis. Carrie M. Edwards, New York, June 25, 1883. 



