340 



PSYCHE. 



[February 1896. 



77, A. ititerstitialis Say- but once on tlie dates mentioned. All 



Rusticiis, baltimorensis aiul inter- hil>ernate beneath logs, usually those 



stitialis are rather common through- in sandv localities. Six additional 



out the winter. The others are rare species of the genus have been taken 



at anv time and in winter were taken in the countv. 



FINAL NOTES ON ORGYIA. 



BY HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK CITY. 



Since my former pajaers in Psvche 

 on our species of Notolophus (formerly 

 Orgyia), I have bred several of the 

 western forms with the view of estab- 

 lishing their relationshi]3S. The species 

 have been carried through several gen- 

 erations and I have thus had them con- 

 tinuously before me for three years. 

 The following conclusions have been 

 arrived at. 



Notolophus vetusta Boisd. 



ff/i/osa Hy. Edvv. ; caiia Hv. Edw. 



I recognize but one species in Cali- 

 fornia. I have bred a large numlier of 

 the larvae of the lupine feeding form 

 {vetusta) raised from eggs kindly sent 

 me by Mr. T. G. O. Mueller, Mr. Bev- 

 erly Letcher and Dr. H. H. Behr. 

 Thiy do not differ from those of N. 

 giilosa which I have already described 

 and I found them by no means fastidi- 

 ous as to their food plants. The char- 

 acters noted by the late Henry Edwards 

 to separate them, I find to be only indi- 

 vidual ones, present in varying degrees 

 in different examples from broods of 

 both vetusta and gnlosa. The differ- 

 ences in the moths also are of the same 

 character. I formerly stated (Psyche, 

 vi, 40) that Mr. Edw.irds had con- 



founded the moths. I see now that 

 this was probably not the case, but 

 that he bred from larvae on lupine the 

 form that I bred fiom larvae on oak, 

 and the contradiction was due to insufti- 

 ciency of material in both Mr. Edwards' 

 hands and my own. In the case of 

 cana, I showed that there were two 

 black tufts in the young larva, wliereas 

 gnlosa had but one such. During my 

 breeding of ^?</o.?« among numbers of 

 larvae raised from the egg. a few ap- 

 pearetl with the two black tufts. These 

 were isolated and the resulting moths 

 paired toijether. The larvae from their 

 eggs the next season were all of the 

 cana form. The larvae, however, from 

 the moths from which all the cana 

 forms had been eliminated varied again 

 the next year, producing about 3 per 

 cent cana. Now if we consider that all 

 the other species of Notolophus have 

 the two anterior tufts colored alike, it 

 becomes apparent that this is a case of 

 reversion in gulosa and so the greater 

 stability of the cana form is accounted 

 for. The sea-coast form, vctiisfa- 

 gulosa, is thus seen to be a modified 

 off"-slioot of the more generalized one 

 inhabiting the interior of California ; 



