70 



PS r CHE. 



[April 1S91 



Mr. H. Hinkley showed specimens of Lagoa 

 crispata which he had raised. It is interest- 

 ing in that in hatching, it pushes the pupa 

 skin from the chrysalis. The legs, anten- 

 nae, etc., have separate coverings. There is 

 also a sort of double lid to the cocoon. 



11 January, 1889. The i42d meeting of the 

 Club was held at 156 Brattle St. Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder was chosen chairman. 



The annual reports of the secretary and 

 librarian were read and accepted. The an- 

 nual report of the treasurer was read and ac- 

 cepted subject to the approval of the auditors. 



The club then proceeded to ballot for offi- 

 cers for the ensuing year. The following 

 were chosen: President: S. H. Scudder. 

 Secretary: R. Hayward. Treasurer: S. 

 Henshaw. Librarian : G. Dimmock. Mem- 

 bers at large of Executive Committee : G. 

 Dimmock, and H. Hinkley. Editors of 

 Psyche : G. Dimmock and S. Henshaw. 



The annual address of the retiring presi- 

 dent, Prof. Wm. Trelease, was on Myrme- 

 cophilism (See Psyche v. 5, p. 171-180). 



Remarks were made by Mr. Albert E.Smith 

 on a leaf-cutting ant which is very injurious 

 to the coffee plant in South America. These 

 ants cut off the leaves and carry them away ; 

 thev are supposed to use them to cover up 

 their subterranean passages. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder showed some of the 

 late Dr. Asa Fitch's manuscripts and read 

 a note of his in which he recorded as early 

 as 1855 the occurrence of Feniseca tarqni- 

 nius with plant lice. 



Mr. Scudder next called the attention of 

 the Club to the remarkable mode of suspen- 

 sion in the chrysalis of the genus Thais, ex- 

 hibiting specimens of the chrysalis of T. 

 rumina. In all the three species of this genus 

 found in Europe the anterior extremity of the 

 chrysalis is furnished with a double tubercle, 

 bristling with short curving hooks, and the 

 chrysalis, besides being attached in the normal 

 way of the Papilionidae by the hinder extrem- 

 ity and the girth around the middle, has also 

 an additional support by the entanglement of 

 these anterior hooks in a loop of silk spun by 



the caterpillar in preparing for pupation, and 

 which seems to spring from about the same 

 points as the transverse loop of the thorax. 

 There seems to be very little reference to this 

 peculiar mode of transformation by those 

 who have treated of this genus, although it 

 was distinctly mentioned by Rambur as long 

 ago as 1840 in his Faune entomologique 

 d'Andalusie ; Boisduval, Rambur, and Gras- 

 lin in their work on European caterpillars 

 describe and figure two species and Duponchel 

 gives an independent description and figure 

 of one of them, — all without reference to this 

 peculiar mode of suspension, or to the unique 

 structure of the anterior extremity, to which 

 there seems to be no parallel irr the Lepidop- 

 tera. Rambur in the work referred to says 

 (p. 243) : "The anterior extremity which is 

 pointed and bifid is also furnished with little 

 short hooks which hook themselves in two 

 bundles of thick silk; it is thus supported 

 by the two extremities besides the slight 

 band of silk which embraces it. " Yet Doub- 

 Ieday in 1846 says that "according to Dr. 

 Rambur, when about to undergo their meta- 

 morphosis, they not only fasten themselves 

 by a transverse thread like the Parnassii, but 

 also surround themselves by a very slight 

 silken web," which Rambur nowhere asserts 

 and which is an entire mistake. 



He then showed some living pupae of Pie- 

 ris napae and called attention to the differ- 

 ences between them and those of P. oleracea. 

 The frontal spine is straight in P. napae, 

 short and hooked upward in P. oleracea- 

 The pupae of P. napae are also more heavily 

 marked. The larvae differ in the amount of 

 pile and in the prominence of the larger 

 wartlets. He stated that the specimens of P. 

 oleracea from the temperate regions of Amer- 

 ica and of P. napae from those of Europe are 

 easily distinguishable in their earlier stages 

 and also by the abdominal appendages of 

 the male imago. 



Mr. A. E. Smith showed a part of his col- 

 lection of Orthoptera from Brazil, and re- 

 marked at some length on his collecting in 

 South America 



