February 1S91 .] 



PSYCHE. 



the whole side gray tinged and the borders 

 of the dorsal stripe of clear color outlined by 

 gray touches; a dorsal line of clearer color 

 indicated on the anterior joints; between 

 joints 3 and 4 and between 4 and 5 on the 

 dorsum a yellow transverse stripe that is hid 

 when the larva is at rest; the head is less 

 distinctly marked than at the other stage; 

 the lateral fringe pink tinted. The dorsal 

 stripe is more of a distinct red than the gen- 

 eral ground color. 



An interesting parasite was bred in 

 this stage from one of these larvae, but 

 at the time of writing it is misplaced 

 so that I can not now say what it is. Its 

 manner of pupation was as follows : 

 When ready to spin its cocoon it burst 

 open the under side of the host so that 

 the skin of the dead Heteropacha larva 

 formed a cover for the upper side of the 

 cocoon. The ends of the dead larva 

 were shrunken, but the middle where 

 used as a cover for the cocoon was three 

 times as broad across as the living larva 

 had been. The pupal period of the para- 



site was 8 days, from May 20 to May 28. 



Last stage — Length, 1.05 inches. Striped 

 with 7 yellow stripes, a dorsal, subdorsal, 

 suprastigmatal, and substigmatal, the first 

 two quite dark almost orange, the other two 

 paler and much narrower. The space be- 

 tween the dorsal and subdorsal black ; a white 

 pateh between the joints breaks the subdorsal 

 stripe and extends almost to the dorsal. 

 Sides gray. Venter pale yellow, dull, a black 

 patch to each joint. Head black, a short 

 transverse buff streak in front ; top of joint 2 

 black; short hair all over the body but not 

 enough to very much obscure the colors, the 

 hair on the upper part of the body mostly 

 black but that along the sides above the legs 

 gray- 



The pupal period of the moth was 15 

 days, from May 22 to June 6. This 

 was the period of the first one that 

 pupated. Several others were raised 

 but their periods were not noted. They 

 continued to hatch to July 17, some 

 being in the larva state when the first 

 one emerged as an imago. 



Smerinthus astylus. — A brood of twen- 

 ty-four raised this past season, showed some 

 variations from those of last year. 



Eggs laid July 29th and 30th. 



Hatched— Aug. 8th. 



1 st moult — Aug 16th. 



2nd moult — Aug. 22d. 



3rd moult — Aug. 29th. 



4th moult — Sept. 5th. 



Most stopped eating Sept. 14th, and pupa- 

 ted Sept. iSth to 30th, varying much in 

 length of time required for this change. All 

 these periods were shorter in 1S90 than in 

 1889, except that between 2nd and 3rd 

 moults. But three of the larvae kept on 

 feeding till Oct. 15th — one dying just before 

 that date. There was much greater variation 



in color in this brood. Twenty were much 

 more marked with red than those of last year, 

 while four had no red, even on the caudal 

 horn! Three of these four were the three 

 which continued feeding after the others had 

 pupated. Every one lost the '-bifid tip" of 

 the caudal horn so that, in the last stage, no 

 one could imagine that it had ever been 

 bifid. Ida M. Eliot, Caroline G. Soule. 



Prothoracic Wings. — M. Charles Brongn- 

 iart of Paris has just published in the Bul- 

 letin of the Societe philomathique two plates 

 representing three insects, differing consid- 

 erably in structure, found in the rich carbon- 

 iferous beds of Commentry, France, two of 

 which show, besides fully developed meso- 



