February iSgf).] 



PSrCHE. 



347 



Mr. Sciidder ;ilso exhibited the work of 

 what was presinned to be Rpitrix parvitlu 

 on tobacco leaver, received from Mr. S. E. 

 Elmore of Hartford, Conn.; according to 

 him, tliis insect "eats a small bit from the 

 leaf of gr9wing tobacco, leaving a light brown 

 spot upon tiic leaf when readv for market; 

 these spots materialh' increase the market 

 value of the crop. . . . If tliev could be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated it would be a boon to the 

 tobacco grower." Webster states that the 

 insect is regarded as injurious to the tobacco 

 in Ohio. One of the members immediately 

 pioduced a cigar showing these spots on the 

 wrapper, but did not slate whetlier he paid 

 an extra price on their account. 



Mr. Scudder further reporteti the capture of 

 Basilarcliia (irt/iciiiif by Mr. R. N. Davis of 

 Archbald, Penn., on Bald Mount near Scran- 

 ton. Penn., 23S5' above the sea; and of Cal- 

 hdryas philea by Mr. \V. T. Bell of Franklin, 

 Penn , at that place, far beyond its usual 

 range, though in the West it has been re- 

 ported as far north as Wisconsin. 



Mr. A. G. Maver stated that it has been 



shown by Schiiffer, van Bemmelen, Urech and 

 Haase that the order of appearance of the 

 colors in the pupal wings of Lepidoptera is 

 as follows : at fii'st the wings are perfectly 

 transparent, then they become pure white, 

 then yellowish, and finally the mature colors 

 begin to appear upon them. He said that he 

 had found that the scales develop during the 

 transparent stage. The white stage iscaused 

 by the protoplasm shrinking out of the scales 

 leaving them in the condition of little hollow 

 bags, so that they diffract the light. In the 

 yellow stage the pigment first ap[iears : this 

 pigment is made by something analogous to 

 a blood clot, for the plasma of the blood 

 enters the scales and forms the pigment. 

 The blood of the chrysalis contains a large 

 amount of serum albumen. 



Mr. R. Hay ward showed specimens oi Bem- 

 bidium muudum^ B. quadyimaculattim and 

 two undescrihed species and remarked on the 

 very close resemblance between them in 

 markings, the four belonging to three dis- 

 tinct groups. 



just Published bv Henrv Holt & Co., New York. 



Scudder's Brief Guide to the Com- 

 moner Butterflies. 



By Samuel 11. Scuodek. .\i + ;o6 pp. 



i2mo. $1.25. 



\n introduction, for the young student, to 

 the names and something of the relationship 

 and lives of our commoner butterflies. The 

 author has selected for treatment the butter- 

 flies, less tlian one hundred in number, which 

 would be almost siu'elv met with bv an in- 

 dustrious collector in a course of a year's or 

 two year's work in our Northern States east 

 of the Great Plains, and in Canada. While 

 all the appai-atus necessary to identify these 

 butterflies, in their earlier as well as perfect 

 stage, is supplied, it is far from the author's 

 purpose to treat them as if they were so many 

 mere postage-stamps to be classified and ar- 

 ranged in a cabinet. He has accordingly 

 added to the descriptions of the difterent spe- 

 cies, their most obvious stages, some of the 

 curious facts concerning their periodicity and 

 their habits of life. 



Scudder's The Life of a Butterfly. 

 A Chapter in Natural History for 

 the General Reader. 



By Samuki, 11. ScuoiiKR. 

 $1.00. 



1S6 pp. i6mo. 



In this book the author has tried to present 

 in untechnical language the story of the life 

 of one of our most conspicuous American 

 butterflies. At the same time, by introduc- 

 ing into the account of its anatomy, devel- 

 opment, distribution, enemies, and seasonal 

 changes some comparisons with the more or 

 less dissimilar structure and life of other but- 

 terflies, and particularly of our native forms, 

 he has endeavored to give, in some fashion 

 and in brief space, a general account of the 

 lives of the whole tribe. Bv using a single 

 butterflv as a special text, one may discourse 

 at pleasure of many : and in the limited field 

 which our native butterflies cover, this meth- 

 od has a certain advantage from its simplicitjr 

 and directness. 



