PSYCHE. 



NOTES UPON THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF SOME AFRICAN 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



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



From among the mass of material il- 

 lustrating the life-history of various 

 species of West- African lepidoptera in 

 my possession, and for which I am 

 largely indebted to my indefatigable co- 

 adjutor, Mr. Good, I have culled a few- 

 notes, which are likely to prove inter- 

 esting to the student of entomology. I 

 have in all cases sought to elucidate by 

 presenting sketches of the objects them- 

 selves, which I have drawn at moments 

 of leisure, and which may be relied 

 upon to do even more than the verbal 

 accounts which I herewith give to make 

 the subject plain. 



Saturnia arnobia Westw. 



In the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 society of London for the year 18S1, p. 

 142, Prof. Westwood described a large 

 bombycid moth to which he gave the 

 name Saturnia arnobia. The specimen 

 upon which he based his description 

 came from Old Calabar, and is in the 

 collection of T. Chapman, Esqr., Glas- 

 gow. 



From Mr. Good I have received sev- 

 eral males which correspond in the 



main with the figure and description of 

 Prof. Westwood, who does not, by the 

 by, indicate the sex of his type. The 

 females differ quite materially from the 

 males, and there is evidently a dry sea- 

 son brood, which differs in both sexes 

 quite considerably from the wet season 

 form. But the most remarkable fact in 

 the life history of this great moth, 

 which equals in expanse of wing the 

 largest Bombycidae of North America, 

 is the fact that the chrysalis is sus- 

 pended, and while the caterpillar 

 weaves a few stout silken threads about 

 the spot where it undergoes its transfor- 

 mations, the chrysalis hangs pendulous 

 from its support like the chrysalis of the 

 Nymphalidae. This is best understood 

 from the figure given upon Plate cj- 



Before giving a description of the va- 

 rious forms of the species, I give the 

 notes sent me by the collector : — 



"No. 43. This number designates a 

 very large moth which emerged from a 

 very large chrysalis. The first of these 

 large chrysalids was handed to me at 

 Elovi, a town fifteen miles down the 

 river from Kangwe. This chrysalis has 

 not yet disclosed the imago, (May 14th, 



