Jiiiniary 1SS9.] 



PSYCHE. 



153 



of two molts escaping my frequent and 

 somewhat careful scrutiny. The latter sup- 

 position seems to be favored by the circum- 

 stance of the lateness of the season when the 

 parent moth was taken, as it is rare to find 

 one so late as 17 Aug. Several of the pupae 

 soon sickened and, on being handled, readily 

 collapsed, showing that they lacked the ro- 

 bustness of normal specimens. 



As to the distribution of the red spots, I 

 find, on consulting William Buckler's work 

 "The larvae of the British butterflies and 

 moths," that the three British specimens of 

 the genus Smerinthus ( 5. ocellatiis.S. pofttli^ 

 and 5. tiliae), all show the same disparity' 

 as does our S. excaecatus in regard to num- 

 ber and distribution. 



Holmes Hinkley. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB. 



{Continued from p. ijg.) 



II March 1887. — The 127th meeting was 

 held at 61 Sacramento St., Cambridge, 11 

 March 18S7. The meeting was called to 

 order shortly after eight, the president. Mr. 

 J. H. Emerton in the chair. 



The additions to the library were announced 

 by the librarian. 



Mr. S : H. Scudder exhibited specimens of 

 Melitaea harrisii which had been kept in a 

 cyanide bottle since June 1886 and called 

 attention to the curious fading of the black 

 in the wings. 



He then sho^Yed a photograph of Major 

 John LeConte taken from a miniature. 



Mr. Scudder read a letter dated i6January, 

 1887, fi'O'" Miss Adele M. Fielde of Swatow, 

 China, containing six larvae. These were 

 found "on the level surface of the coarse 

 sand which covers the bottom of an aque- 

 duct, under an inch or two of fresh, clear, 

 running water ; little structures which resem- 

 bled a tiny cave with a gray gauze awning 

 stretched in front. They were to be seen in 

 scores, always opening up stream, the gauzv 



entrance arched at the top and having a span 

 of an eighth to half an inch. There was 

 usually a buttress of sand in the rear, which 

 in some cases had been swept away. The 

 largest of the larvae found was five-eighths 

 of an inch long. It burrowed in the sand, 

 forming the floor of its cave, and stretched 

 its head out of its fuirow, appearing to feed 

 on what had been caught in the delicate roof 

 of its den. Its head and the three thoracic 

 segments, each of which bore a pair of jointed 

 legs, were a glossy reddish-brown, while the 

 following eight segments were, in some spec- 

 imens bright green, in others opaque gray. 

 The terminal portion, a translucent white 

 segment, bore two cylindrical prongs, ending 

 in a tuft of long setae and having a brown 

 hook on the under side, like the hooks on the 

 feet. Nine segments, beginning with the 

 mesothoracic, bore on the ventral surface 

 tracheal gills, which issued from the bodv in 

 a single stem and then branched irregularly 

 into finger-shaped processes. The arrange- 

 ment of these gills is much like that of the 

 setae on the ventral surface of the earth- 

 worm, as far as I could discover without a 

 dissecting microscope, in four longitudinal 

 rows. The two outer ones being the larger. 

 (I am not certain whether there were really 

 four rows or whether the branching gave the 

 appearance of four rows.) No antennae 

 were visible. The eyes are small and close 

 to the mouth. The metathoracic appears to 

 coalesce with the first abdominal segment, 

 but diflers in color. There are many may fly 

 larvae flitting about the little structures, prob- 

 ably uninvited guests at the banquet spread 

 out in the net of their host. The species is 

 probably allied to one described by Miss 

 Cora H. Clarke." 



(See Proc. acad. nat. sci.,Phil. 1888, p. 129- 

 130, pi. 8.) 



Mr. S : H. Scudder then showed figures of 

 the fossil butterflies known from America. 



Mr. W : Trelease exhibited specimens 

 which he supposed to belong to some spe- 

 cies of coccidae. 



