Xovcmber — December iSSS.] 



PSYCHE. 



139 



Mr. S : H. Scudder then showed some 

 plates from a work which he has in prepara- 

 tion upon our New England butterflies. 



II Feb. 1S87. — The 126th meeting was 

 held at 61 Sacramento St, Cambridge, 11 

 Feb., 1887. The meeting was called to order 

 at 8 p. M., the president, Mr. J. H. Emerton 

 in the chair. Nine members were present. 



The secretary, in behalf of the executive 

 committee, stated that a contract had been 

 drawn up between the club, as party of the 

 first part, and Mr. B : Pickman Mann, as 

 party of the second part. Under this con- 

 tract, Mr. Mann was to assume the publica- 

 tion of Psyche. The contract was then read, 

 accepted, and the secretary authorized to 

 act as assistant treasurer as per contract. 



The secretary was empowered to levy an 

 extra assessment of fifty cents on all resi- 

 dent members. 



Mr. S : H. Scudder read a paper on the 

 injuries to plants by white ants. Maple 

 trees have been quite seriously injured by 

 Tertnes Jlavipes. Mr. Scudder found many 

 of the geranium cuttings in a greenhouse 

 attached to Mt. Auburn cemetery injured by 

 these depredations. The white ants enter the 

 cut end and eat away all but the rind. They 

 have there just the conditions which they 

 most need. Mr. Scudder recommends, as a 

 preventative, that the trays in which the cut- 

 tings are placed should be lined with slate 

 tiles. (See Can. entom.,\. 19, p. 217-218.) 



Mr. S : H. Scudder exhibited under the mi- 

 croscope some of the androconia or scales 

 peculiar to the male sex, which are found in 

 the kesperidae. These occur in one or two 

 places on the fore wing, according to which 

 of the two groups into which he has divided 

 the skippers they belong. In one of these 

 groups, the hesperidi. comprising most of 

 the larger skippers, they are found in a 

 special overlapping fold of the wing mem- 

 brane, on the costal border; in the other, 

 the fampkilidi, into which the bulk of the 

 smaller species fall, in a surface dash cross- 

 ing the base of the median nervules. In 

 the interior of each is the mass of slender. 



more or less thread-like scales, which in our 

 New England heaperidt take the form of 

 curving or chain-like, slender, twisted rib- 

 bons, or thread-tipped, tapering scales; the 

 homologous structures of the pamphilidi 

 are the pointed scales or short pile forming 

 the velvety interior of thediscal streak. Out- 

 side of all, and partially or wholly concealing 

 the others, are the large tenuous cover-scales, 

 many times larger than the ordinary scales 

 of the wing, with entire margin and con- 

 cave or tortuous surface. While along the 

 edges of the fold of the /lesperidi, or in defi- 

 nite spots about the stigma of the pamp/itlidt, 

 are two other sets of scales — a modification 

 of those found along the veins of the costal 

 area — slender, nearly uniform, one, two, or 

 three-toothed, and generally of a verv dark 

 color; and secondly, the very minute boat- 

 shaped scales, which are apparently inter- 

 mingled indefinitely with the others. 



The identity of the elements which char- 

 acterize these two forms of male adornment 

 in the skippers has not before been recog- 

 nized, but there is an additional and inde- 

 pendent character in the pamphilidi in the 

 frequent presence below the area of the dash 

 proper of a large patch of partially erect 

 fan-like scales. 



Mr. Scudder also called attention to the 

 difference between the New England species 

 of Thauaos without pre-marginal white 

 spots on the fore-wing and the others, in 

 , that the curving hairs of the interior of the 

 costal fold are replaced in the former: in 

 one case, brizo, hy twisted ribbon-like scales ; 

 and in the other, iceliis, by thread-tipped, 

 tapering scales, very different in general ap- 

 pearance from the curving hairs and wholly 

 lacking the basal crook of these. (See Psyche 

 V. 5, p. 86-88.) Remarks were made by vari- 

 ous members. 



Mr. S : H. Scudder then exhibited the in- 

 flated larvae of various diurnal lepidoptera. 



Dr. G: Dimmock showed a living plant- 

 louse, Siphonophora pelarg07iii hatched 2 

 Feb.. which had neary completed its full 

 growth. 



