180 



PSrCHE. 



[February' i8t)S. 



The females were luminous in every segment 

 when alive, and very beautiful. 



This led to some discussion o( the females 

 and larvae of the Phengodini. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder brought to tlie notice 

 of the club two recent instances of commer- 

 cial introduction of exotic Orthoptera. The 

 first was a very large Mantis taken alive Oct. 

 16 at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, and of which 

 two photographs, sent by Mr. C. Few Seiss, 

 were shown. The specimen is a Tenodera 

 about a decimeter long; so far as the photo- 

 graphs show, it does not appear to agree 

 perfectly with the descriptions of any of the 

 species known, which occur only in the trop- 

 ics of the old world from India to New Zea- 

 land and Japan and also in Africa. Eggs 

 were found in the body and it is difficult to 

 understand how so large an insect could be 

 imported alive to the Atlantic coast of tem- 

 perate America without detection en route. 

 The other instance was Diestramjiuna mar- 

 morata (De Haan) , a Japanese insect allied to 

 our Ceuthophili: specimens were exliibited 

 which had been found in some numbers in 

 greenhouses in Minnesota by Prof. Otto 

 Lugger; the direct means of its introduction 

 had not been ascertained. 



Mr. Scudder referred to a previous exhibi- 

 tion of specimens of the destructive locust 

 of Argentina, Schistocercn paraiiensis 

 (Burm.), which he had received from Prof. 

 L. Bruner and showed further specimens 

 exhibiting the species at the time of egg- 

 laying, which differed by its less intense 

 color from the winter roseate form previously 

 shown. 



lie also reported that he had recently 

 heard from Dr. A. G. Mayer, now at the 

 Fiji Islands, that Anosia plexippus \& one oi 

 the commonest butterflies in Suva and that 

 it is also common at Ovalau, Tamloe and 

 Vanna Mbalavu, all of which were inhabited 

 by a considerable number of whites; on the 

 other hand he states that it certainly does 

 not exist upon most of the other Fiji Islands 

 and is apparently confined to those where 

 commerce can readily have brought it. 



Mr. Scudder also announced the capture at 

 Bristol, Me., by Miss Katherine W. Huston 

 in July last of a specimen of Basilayckia pro- 

 serpina. B. artliemis is said to be quite abun- 

 dant in that locality, while B. as/yaiiax has 

 nerer been observed. 



Mr. A. P. Morse spoke briefly upon the 

 relative abundance of different groups of 

 Orthoptera on the Pacific coast, as noted by 

 him during a recent collecting trip. In 

 point of number of species and wide-spread 

 distribution Oedipodinae were most numer- 

 ous, with Acridinae, especially Melanoplus, 

 a close second; Tryxalinae and Tettiginae 

 were much less plentiful, occurring locally 

 and in relatively small numbers. Of Locus- 

 tarians Xiphidium was the only genus rep- 

 resented abundantly, though Scudderia, 

 Stenopelmatus and certain Decticids were 

 not uncommon locally. Of Gryllidae, 

 Gryllus and Oecanthus were most common, 

 occasionally plentiful and sometimes Tri- 

 dactylus was common. Blattidae, except 

 introduced species were scarce. No Phas- 

 midae were seen. 



A. SMITH & SONS, 269 PEARL STREET, New York. 



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