440 



PSYCHE. 



[April 1S93. 



abdominal joints 1-3, with slight ones on 

 joint 4. Length 17 mm.; greatest width 6.5 

 mm Duration of this stage 9 days. 



Food plant. — Live oa.k(J^_uercus agrifolia). 



$ moth. — Variable in markings. An aver- 

 age specimen was marked as follows. Prim- 

 aries brownish gray, whitish scales largely 

 predominating over a ground of black and 

 brown scales ; a black basal line, not reach- 

 ing costa or internal margin and a brownish 

 patch outside this, covering the lower half of 

 the wing before the t. a. line and narrowly 

 separated from the t. a. line by pale gray. 

 Transverse anterior line broad, brown with 

 black scales, especially near the costa, nearly 

 straight, gently angulated at median vein ; a 

 reniform discal spot, outlined in brown, filled 

 in with a white shade and narrowly bordered 

 with whitish. Median space pale gray, espe- 

 cially costally, darker outside the reniform 

 spot; veins slightly lined in black. Trans- 

 verse posterior line black, starting from costa 

 above reniform spot, passing outward and 

 around the spot, thence inwardly curved, 

 slightly dentate outwardly on all the veins 

 and reaching internal margin parallel to t. a. 

 line. On the costa beyond t. p. line, a black 

 patch, from which proceeds the rusty brown 

 subterminal line, following a course parallel 

 to the t. p. line and strongly marked below 

 vein 2 by a white cresentic mark, which is 

 produced toward the anal angle (on one 

 wing) giving it the shape of a comma. A 

 brown terminal line, heavier and marked with 

 black opposite the crescent. Fringes blackish 

 interrupted with paler. 



Secondaries chestnut brown, shaded with 

 black, quite heavily all around the outer mar- 

 gin and apex. Below, chestnut brown; the 

 costa of fore wings gray and an exterior 

 blackish brown line on the costal half of all 

 four wings. Expanse, 27 mm. (1.1 inch). 



$ mot/i. — Head and thorax small, legs 

 slender, antennae small, shortly bipectinate; 

 wings fully 5 mm. long, narrow, bent, clothed 

 with sordid white hairs, mixed with a few 

 black scales. Abodmen very large, robust. 



covered abundantly with pale cinereous down 

 beneath. Back thinly clothed with sordid 

 white down, the dorsum of the body showing 

 through in a broad dark cinereous band on 

 both thorax and abdomen. Width of thorax 

 3 mm. ; length 2 mm. ; width of abdomen 9.5 

 mm.; length 15 mm. 



Habitat. — Coast region of California. Re- 

 corded from Contra Costa Co., (Edwards), 

 Alameda Co. (Behr), San Mateo Co., Santa 

 Cruz Co., and Monterey Co., Cal. 



The moths above described agree so well 

 with Mr. Edwards' characterization of Orgyia 

 vetusta Bd. that, had it not been for the food 

 plant of the larva, I should have had no 

 hesitation in referring them to that species. 

 On the other hand, I have received from Mr. 

 L. E. Ricksecker, under the name of O. 

 vetusta, moths which exactly correspond 

 with Mr. Edwards' description of O. gulosa. 

 It is evident, therefore, that Mr. Edwards has 

 confounded the two forms and placed the 

 larvae wrongly. His descriptions of the 

 mature forms of O. vetusta and O. gulosa in 

 Papilio (i, 60-62) should be transposed, 

 while the characterizations of the larvae 

 are correct. I have concluded to preserve 

 the determinations of the larvae as made by 

 Mr. Edwards rather than those of the moths 

 because, in the larval state, they are the 

 more easily separated, especially in relation 

 to their food plants, and because this 

 determination is the one generally accepted 

 by Californian collectors. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.— III. 



BY SAMUEL HENSHAW. 



Biologia Centrali-Americana. — Co- 

 leoptera. Vol. Ill, Part 3 By Henry 

 Stephen Gorhatn. 



gen. sp. 

 Lycidae, 1880-S1, pt. 8-9, p. 1-29; 



1884, pt. 32-33, p. 225-249. 14 123 



Lampyridae, 1SS1, pt. 9-1 1, p. 29- 

 65;i8S4-S5,pt. 33,36, p. 249- 

 277- J S H4 





