PSYCHE. 



THE LIFE HISTORY OF SPALGIS S-SIGNATA HOLL. 



BY W. J. HOLLAND, PH.D., PITTSBURGH, PENX. 



In November of last year I published 

 in Psyche, vol. 5, p. 426, a description 

 of a new species of Spalgis Moore, from 

 Kangwe, upon the Ogove River, West 

 Africa, and gave to it the specific name 

 s-signata . 



I have recently received the larva and 

 chrysalis of the insect, accompanied by 

 a note from the collector, Rev. A. C. 

 Good, Ph.D., which shows that we are 

 dealing with a species, which is in its 

 habits closely related to our own Feni- 

 seca tarquinius Fabr. The creature is 

 aphidivorous in its larval state, as Mr. 

 Good shows. We thus have knowl- 

 edge of four species of Lycaenidae, the 

 caterpillars of which are characterized 

 by carnivorous propensities. They are 



Feniseca tarquinius Fabr., 



Spalgis epius Westw r ood, 



Liphyra brassolis Westwood, 



Spalgis s-signata Holland. 



The life history of Feniseca tarquin- 

 ius has been thoroughlv worked out by 

 Miss Emily Morton and Mr. W. H. 

 Edwards. The life history of Spalgis 

 epius, as given by Mr. E. E. Green, of 

 Pundul-oya, Ceylon, and incorporated 



in vol. 2 of the kt Butterflies of India, 

 Burmah, and Ceylon," by De Niceville, 

 finds confirmation in the discovery of 

 Rev. Mr. Good. Mr. Green calls 

 attention in loc. cit. to the fact that 

 there must have been an error made in 

 assigning to S. epius the larva and chry- 

 salis which are attributed to that species 

 in Mr. Moore's great work upon the 

 Lepidoptera of Ceylon. That the larva 

 of Liphyra brassolis is aphidivorous is 

 an inference of the writer, and is based 

 upon grounds, which he has fully de- 

 tailed in the Canadian entomologist, 

 vol. 19, p. 61. Undoubtedly, as we 

 come to a fuller knowledge of the habits 

 of the Lycaenidae of the tropics of the 

 old world, we shall find that there are 

 several genera besides those which have 

 been named that have similar habits. I 

 strongly suspect that the larvae of Lach- 

 nocnema and of Euliphyra mihi, are 

 like the larvae of Spalgis and Feniseca 

 in their food habit. 



I give upon Plate 4 the figure of the 

 larva, the chrysalis, and the imago of 

 Spalgis s-signata, and have also given 

 a magnified representation of the dorsal 



