April iSSS.] 



PSYCHE. 



43 



FSYCHE. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., APRIL 1888. 



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GONIA SENILIS VVILLISTON. 



I had the good fortune to find two speci- 

 mens of this pretty species of tachinidae in 

 the Low' collection from Texas. 



The species was described in the number 

 of the Canadian entomologist for January 

 1SS7 from a single specimen from western 

 Kansas. The specimens that I examined agree 

 with the description in all respects except in 

 the coloration of the abdomen. In one of 

 them the abdomen was wholly black, with 

 the ordinary pilose bands along the edge of 

 each segment, appearing very much like that 

 of Gonia frontosa Say. The other specimen 

 on the contrary, had a large amount of red on 

 the abdomen, reminding one of the abdomen 

 of Gonia exttl Williston, there being only a 

 median line black in the first, second and 

 third segments, and even a trace of red on the 

 base of the fourth. The only other difference 

 observable between these two specimens was 

 the slightly smaller size, shorter wings and 

 less number of black hairs on the base of the 

 antennae, in the second specimen. 



There can be no doubt, I think, that these 

 specimens are Go«/«5e«///s Williston, because 

 of the agreement in all characters except the 

 color of the abdomen ; and, besides, this char- 

 acter is variable in the other species of this 

 genus, but never as far as I know, to any- 

 where near the extent that it is in this species. 

 C: W: Woodtvorik. 



THREE RARE ENTOMOLOGICAL 

 WORKS. 



The library of the Museum of comparative 

 zoology at Harvard university has lately 

 obtained the following rare works. 



The author's original copy of Townend 

 Glover's "Engraved plates of his Illustrations 

 of North American entomology, colored by 

 the hand of the author; also a few original 

 drawings." These are in five quarto volumes. 



By the same author, "Original drawings, 

 principally of cotton insects and other insects 

 injurious or beneficial to agriculture." In 

 two octavo volumes. "Only 15 copies of 

 these plates were printed for private distribu- 

 tion. The drawings are dated 1S54 to 1857. 

 A number of plates of lepidoptera are added, 

 produced by the mechanical transference of 

 the wing-scales to paper." 



By the same author, "Proofs from ten early 

 copper plates, the author's first attempt at an 

 illustrated work on entomologv." 



EGG-LAYING OF LIMENITIS DISIP- 

 PUS. 



Mr. Scudder asks (Psyche, v. 3, p. 30) if I 

 am "confident that the several eggs on a 

 given leaf were all laid by the same butterfly." 



I cannot be absolutely sure of the first one 

 laid on the leaf having four eggs, for that 1 

 did not see deposited — as I did the others — 

 owing to the steepness of the bank and the 

 low poplars which were abundant enough to 

 impede my progress. 



The eggs all hatched within twenty-four 

 hours after the first larva appeared. 



There was more diff'erence in their pupa- 

 tion, the first and last being four days apart; 

 and in their emerging there w'as a difference 

 of six days between the first and last. 



My whole experience with L. disippus was 

 a surprise to me, for I had found but one or 

 two larvae before last summer and had never 

 seen the eggs, w^hile, last summer, I found 

 more larvae of L. disippus than of any other 

 butterfly, and found so many eggs, on poplar 

 leaves, that I gave up collecting them. 



Caroline G. Soule. 



