126 



PSYCHE. 



[August 1S91. 



so as to touch the cocoon. I saw 

 it force its way out through one of the 

 meshes, which it did in a few seconds 

 by a series of starts, pushing itself with 

 its legs and opening and contracting its 

 limp wings ; it made use of any limb 

 as soon as it was free from its encase- 

 ments, and as soon as it was out of the 

 cocoon it took up a position where its 

 wings could properly hang and expand. 

 Most of the imagos bred by me came 



out in the third week of September; 

 one was in chrysalis from August 23 to 

 September 24, or thirty-two days. As, 

 according to Packard, there is but one 

 brood a year and eggs are laid very 

 soon after hatching, it is probable that 

 winter is passed in the egg state. 

 Packard figures the caterpillar, but not 

 (as he says) the pupa, in his Monograph 

 of the Phalaenidae. (From notes taken 

 in 1S59 and 1861.) 



A LIST OF THE BOMBYCES FOUND IN THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 

 GLOBES AT POUGHKEEPSIE, N. V. 



BY HARRISON G. DYAR, NEW YORK. 



During the summer of 1890 I made 

 nine visits to the electric lamps of Pough- 

 keepsie and the following list shows the 

 number of Bombvces that they contained 

 at each visit, with totals. I have in- 

 cluded also the names of all Bombyces 

 that I have found in western Dutchess 

 County even though not found in the 

 lamps in 1890. The numbers will give 

 a fair idea of the relative abundance of 

 the different species. To my surprise I 

 found Halesidota tessellaris the most 

 abundant though, judging from the 

 larvae, it was no more common than 

 usual, while Clisiocampa americana, 

 which was second in abundance, was 

 unusually common, doing much injury 

 to the wild cherry and apple trees. 



I visited about one-third of the electric 

 lights in Poughkeepsie and took al- 



together 7S74 specimens. The'list con- 

 tains 114 species. The seven most 

 numerous species, those comprising one 

 per cent or over of the total number, 

 were the folio wins: : — 



Halesidota tessellaris Sm. Abb, 

 Clisiocampa americana Harr. 

 Hyphantria var. textor Harr. 

 Spilosoma, virginica Fabr. 

 Clisiocampa diss t via Hiibn. 

 Hyperchiria io Fabr. 

 PyrrJiarctia Isabella Sm. Abb. 

 All the rest together (S8 species) 



Per cent. 



34 



3 1 

 16 



1 



1 



1 



1 



15 



I was greatly assisted in making the 

 collections here recorded by the kind- 

 ness of Mr. J. H. Van Norstrand of 

 Poughkeepsie who takes care of the 

 electric lisfhts I visited. 



