122 



PSYCHE. 



[August 1891 



will appear in the number, which is to 

 be issued in April. By the solicitations 

 of one of the editors of the Boston Jour- 

 nal of Philosophy, &c, I have consented 

 to its publication in the number of that 

 Journal for February next. The object 

 of this paper is principally to clear up 

 some mistakes arising from ignorance 

 of the species, & to collect some facts 

 of practical utility ; it will be only in- 

 teresting in this vicinity. Should you 

 see it, you will find your information 

 on the subject duly honoured. It was 

 my good* fortune also to trace the pro- 

 gress of the Peach-tree insect; and 

 having, in July, obtained it in its per- 

 sect state, I concluded that it must be 

 a Zygaana, according to Fabiicius' char- 

 acter of that genus, in his Entomologia 

 Systematica (1793). An account of it I 

 presented to an agricultural friend, 

 John Lowell, Esqr. , & proposed to call 

 it Zygama (Persicaa) cyanea, alis 

 posticis hyalinis ; abdomine barbato, 

 cingula croceo. Soon afterwards, I 

 obtained, what I took to be another 

 species, from the Cherry-tree ; the larva 

 being found to infest excrescences on 

 the trunk and limbs. This, as well as 

 the former, I was unable to find in 

 Fabricius' Glossata, & placed it in my 

 collection with this definition — Zy- 

 gaena (Cerasi) alis hyalinis, margine 

 fasciaque anticarum cyaneis, abdomine 

 barbato, chalybato ; barbA, apice alba : 

 pedibus chalybatis, geniculis aureis, &c. 

 This insect I afterwards obtained also 

 from the peach tree ; inhabiting, like 

 the preceding, beneath the bark at the 

 root. Still, the two were so dissimilar 



that I could not suppose them to be 

 merely the sexes of one species. Your 

 having remarked the great difference, in 

 appearance, of the sexes of Aegeria ex- 

 itiosa, has led me to think that, these may 

 be the same you mention by that name. 

 Please inform me whether my defini- 

 tions correspond with your specimens ; 

 &, if so, whether you are fully per- 

 suaded that they are but sexual distinc- 

 tions. My insects are certainly nearer 

 related to the genus yEgeria of Leach, 

 in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, than 

 to that of Zygama. Does this latter 

 genus, according to the new arrange- 

 ment, contain insects with the anus 

 bearded ; or are we to look to the an- 

 tennas alone for a distinction from 

 Aegeria? I have discovered, here, 

 another insect, probably of the same 

 genus, which may be thus described — 

 yEgeiia (fulvicornis) brunnea, alis pos- 

 ticis hyalinis ; margine postico, stigma- 

 teque costali fuliginoso ; antennis, 

 tarsisque fulvis : abdomine barbato.* 

 There is a beautiful Bombyx, quite 

 common here, it appears to be a non- 

 descript, & Prof. Peck proposed to call 

 it B. Trifolii, from the larva being very 

 fond of the common clover. I have 

 also found it feeding occasionally on 

 the leaves of the Balsam Poplar, & the 

 American Elm. Male sulphureous: 

 upper wings with two irregular lines & 

 a central macula ferruginous ; under 

 wings with an ocellus & arc of a blue- 

 black colour ; tY. an external arc & the 



* Habitat unknown to me: found in meadows: mag- 

 nitude of the first mentioned. 



