PSrCHE. 



41 



median longitudinal cinereous stripe, spread- 

 ing out on hind border of third segment and 

 covering fourth. No discal macrochaetae. 

 Legs long, yellowish, tarsi black. Front 

 tarsi considerably longer than front tibiae, 

 but not nearly twice as loni;. Other tarsi 



but little shorter than front tarsi. Wings 

 clear, third vein with three or four bristles at 

 extreme base. Tegulae saturate tawny, hal- 

 teres yellow-w-hite. Apical cell very nar- 

 rowly open, ending but little before actual 

 tip of wiuij. 



A SOUTHERN RACE OF DATANA PERSPICUA GR. 

 (VAR. MESILLAE). 



AND ROB. 



nV T. D. A. COCKERELL, MESILI.A, NEW MEXICO. 



On July 20. 1S96, Mr. Sherfey, our super- 

 intendent of schools, brought me great 

 numbers of a larva on Rhus canudeiisis (aio- 

 tnnfnyj). which he had found in his garden 

 in Mesilla, New Mexico. I was surprised to 

 see that they belonged to Dataiin — a genus 

 I had never before seen or heard of in New 

 Mexico. On comparing them with the 

 descriptions in Dr. Packard's recent magnifi- 

 cent monograph, I felt stu'e, from theconcol- 

 orous hairs and other characters, that I had 

 before me a variety of miiiisira, similar to, 

 but not identical with, the var. californira 

 (Riley). The larvae were 35 mm. long, and 

 differed from the description of mitiistrii by 

 tlie dark reddish prothoracic shield; the base 

 of the legs was dull crimson; head black; 

 lines on body sulphur yellow. 



On July 22, Mr. Sherfey brought me eggs 

 and voung larvae from the same bush. sIionv- 

 ing some irregularity in the broods. The 

 eggs were laid in great numbers, touching, 

 on the under side of the leaf; they were 

 chalk-white, rounded, rather low, hardly 

 shiny, not perceptibly sculptured, with the 

 usual black speck. The young larvae were 

 dark crimson with chrome \'ellow lines and 

 black heads. 



Mr. Sherfey kindly undertook to raise the 

 moths for me, and they emerged in numbei's 

 at the middle of August. To my surprise, 

 the moths were evidently not mitiiiti a, but 



belonged with f<ers/>iciia and robiista. Dr. 

 H. G. Dyar, to whom I sent specimens, as- 

 sures me that they aie perspicua, slightly 

 tending in the direction of robiista, but still 

 unmistakable perspniia. A comparison 

 with Dr. Packard's figures entirely supports 

 this view, but the oblique streak to the apex 

 of the primaries is almost or quite obsolete. 



D. pef'spictta is a northern species, which 

 does not appear to give ofT any southern 

 segregates in the eastern U. S.; but in the 

 Central Region we had already a very dis- 

 tinct oft'shoot, the D. robiista Strecker, 1872, 

 found in the Lower Sonoran zone in Texas. 

 Mesilla, as Piof. Townsend and the writer 

 have shown elsewhere, is in the Upper 

 Sonoran, and it is therefore not surprising 

 that the representative of D. perspicua 

 should be different from robiista, and more 

 closely approximate to the type. That the 

 modification is more marked in the larva 

 than in the imago is interesting, but not 

 surprising, considering that the moths are 

 nocturnal, while the larvae are exposed in 

 broad daylight, and doubtless possess warn- 

 ing colors. 



It appears that D. perspicua has been 

 taken by Prof. Gillette at light. In Mesilla, 

 when the moths must have been emerging 

 in great numbers, I never took any at light. 



For this Mesilla race of D perspicua, I 

 will propose the varietal name mesillae. 



