SAMIA EURYALUS. 103 



(PLATE XII, FIG, 2, cJ>.) 



Male and Female. Expand 4 to 5 inches. 



Head red ; thorax red, with white collar ; abdomen annulated with red and white. 



Upper surface dull carmine red, except at the outer margins, which are clay-coloured (ochrey) ; orna- 

 mentation as in allied species, but the discal lune of primaries is in some instances prolonged in a line until it 

 almost touches the sub-basal band, and that of secondaries until it joins the transverse white line. In this 

 species the ground colour beyond the transverse white line is of the same even hue as that interior to it, differ- 

 ing in this respect from Cecropia, Columbia and Gloveri, in which the ground color beyond the transverse line, 

 especially on primaries, is composed of atoms of black or grey, and red, more or less segregated. 



Under surface much as above, but the ground colour more brownish and dotted in part with white atoms. 



The larva has been described by Mr. Henry Edwards,* in Proceedings Cal. Acad. Sciences, who says: 



" Lengtli, 3.30 inches. Pale apple-green, of a very vivid tint throughout, with a slight whitish bloom over the whole surface. 

 Head, with some purplish-black streaks in front and at the sides. Jtouth parts, pale-green, pitchy internally. Second segment with 

 four minute black dots, edged with white anteriorly, and two very small white mammiform tubercles on the sides. Third, fourth, and 

 and fifth segments, with long raised protuberances, pale yellow, with a black, swollen band in the middle, and each surmounted Ijy si.x 

 blackish spines. The third segment has also four lateral raiseil white spots. The fourth and fifth segments have two mammiform 

 white spots, the lateral ones on these segments becoming merely black points. On the sixth segment is a faint white raised spot, in the 

 same position as the white swollen tubercles on the preceding segments. Seventh and eighth, with only black points laterally. Ninth, 

 tenth, and eleventh, without any tr.ace of spots. Twelfth segment bears in the middle a long, raised protuberance, yellow, banded with 

 black, exactly similar to those of three, four, and five. On this segment there are also two lateral points, white, tipped with black. 

 Anal segment with foui- black dots arranged in a square, and two white and black points as in twelve. Stigmata white, edged ante- 

 riorly with black. Below the stigmata, and parallel with them, is a row of very minute black dots, edged with greenish-white. Feet, 

 yellowish-green, with the tips purplish-black. Abdominal legs, greenish-yellow, with the edges purplish-black. Viewed from behind, 

 the anal segment is yellowish-green. 



" Food plants, Ceanolhis thyr$ifiorvs, Esch. ; Frangvla Califomica, Gray ; Rhaynnus crocerui, Nutt ; Alnus viridui, D. €. 



" When about to undergo its change, the caterpillar attaches itself usually to the under side of a twig, and spins a rather coarse 

 and very compact outer case, with which no leaves or other extraneous substances are incorporated, and within this a reddish-brown 

 cocoon, the filaments of which are strong, rather coarse, but glossy. The cocoon and its outer case are oval, produced into a cone at the 

 end, by which the insect escapes. 



'• Chrysalis. Pitchy, almost black, very short, rounded in front, and much swollen about the abdominal region. Segments rough, 

 and transversely wrinkled. 



"Length,"l.l5 inch. 



"The caterpillar changes to a chrysalis in September, and the imago appears in the following May or .June." 



Without giving the matter sufiicient attention, I adopted Grote's generic term, Platysamia, in connection with the species first 

 described in this work, but have discarded it in the species here described. Kirby says, in a paper read before the Dublin Society, 

 March, 1872, "Grote has changed the generic name, Samia, (used by WaHcer) without sufficient rea.son, applying it to Altcuius Cynthia;" 

 which latter, if breadth of wing be a foundation for generic distinction, would be in the highest .sense a Darwinian species, as in its 

 fatherland, China, it has, in a slightly modified degree, much the same form as the great Atlas ; narrow, falcate primaries, and seconda- 

 ries prolonged towards the anal angle, and would be placed, conseciuently, in the genus Attacus, but after a several years' acclimatization 

 in the United States, a curious change takes place ; the fore wings become less falcate, (being now not more so than in Ceanothi, 

 .4nyuZ(/era, etc.), the .secondaries much less elongated, and all wings increased much in breadth ; the discal lunes also become shorter 

 and broader, more like those of Cecropia, and we can now place the insect in Platysamia. 



The Chinese examples in my cabinet average 5 inches in exp.inse, those raised from eggs brought from China the same ; the first 

 brood, raised from ova deposited by the latter, wer* all small, averaging only 4 inches, but preserved the typical Asiatic form ; after- 

 wards I let all fly as they emerged, and those that issued from cocoons collected in the woods near Reading, four or five years later, 

 (doubtless the descendants of those that I let loose), averaged 5J inches and were as broad-winged and un-Asiatic in appearance as Ce- 

 cropia and allies. 



In 18-56 or 18.57, I .saw, in the collection of Mr. .1. P. Wild of Baltimore, an example of this species labeled " Eury.ale, California," 

 which he had received from Mr. Becker in Europe. Dr. Boisduval, it appears, however, only published the species by that name, 

 omitting the formula of a description, hence, though well known to most scientists for many years as Euryale or Euryalus, that name 

 had to give way to the later one of Ceanothi, Behr, or Califomica, Grote ; which of these has precedence I cannot say, as I do not know 

 where or when Grote described it, though he claims priority over the other authors. 



SAMIA COLUMBIA, s i. smith. 



Proceedings Boston Socielv Natural History, Vol. IX, p. 343 (1863). 



Packard, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila., Vol. Ill, p. 380 (1864). 



Walker, Cat. B. M., Supplement Vol. V, p. 1943 (1866). 



O. J. Bou'les, Canadian Entomologist, Vol. Ill, p. 201 (1871). 



Hagen, Bulletin Bufl^alo Soc. Nat. Sc, Vol. II, p. 201 (1875). 



(PLATE XII, FIG. 3, cf •) 



The accurate original description of both sexes of this species by Prof. Smith, which was also republished 

 in Mr. Bowles' paper in Canadian Entomologist, as well as the illustrations on annexed plate, make it unne- 

 cessary for me to go through the same routine. 



* In order to avoid misapprehension, it might be well to caution students against confounding the work of two authors of the same 

 name, Henry Edwards, of California, and W. H. Edwards, of Kanawha, West Virginia. 



