168 



PSYCHE. 



[February — Maicli ISi^9, 



PSYCHE. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., FEB. -MAR. 1889. 



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LAC INSECTS. 

 Mr. B. P. Manii sent me 24 July 1S85. two 

 specimens with lac insects from Lavedo, 

 Sonora, collected by Dr. E. Palmer, about 60 

 miles from Fort Ynma on the Colorado 

 River. One is Carteria inexicanci, Corn- 

 stock, Report U. S. Dept, agric. iS8i p. 212; 

 Cornell nniv. Exper. stat. 1S83. 2d rept, p. 130 

 TIG. 125, from the twigs o{ Larrca mexicaiiu. 

 The other from Pluchea doreal/s has much 

 ■larger lac lumps and seems to be new. Both 

 insects puncture the older stems and the lac is 

 •secreted upon them, Thisgum occurs in great 

 abundance and is used by the Indians to 

 mend their baskets and pots and to fasten the 

 handles into them. Moreover the Indians 

 in their games and walks have foot-balls 

 which they make by coating stones with this 

 lac and kick along before them. 



H. A. Ha gen. 



MIGRATION OF AGANISTIIOS 

 ACHBRONTA. 



Mr. S : H. Scudder having asked me for the 

 •details of an observation to which reference 

 is made in the American naturalist, April, 

 1877, V, II, p, 245, I have turned to my notes 

 made in Brazil, in 1871, and found the fol- 

 ^lovving entry : — 



"Fr, Feb. 17. , . . Great numbers of No. 



1503 followed each other singly at intervals 

 across the meadow in fiont of the house, 

 migi-ating apparently, and were verv difficult 

 to catch." 



Mr. H. K. Morrison states that my No. 

 1503 is Aganisthos. acheronta Fabr. I belie\ e 

 the determination was made for Mr. Morrison 

 by Mr. Herman Strecker. 



I remember the occasion of the obserxa- 

 tion. The butterflies came with powerful 

 rapid, direct flight, perhaps from three to 

 five meters above the level of the meadow, 

 from the direction of a rising ground or 

 small hill near b}'. After seeing several and 

 noticing the uniformity of their behavior, I 

 ascended the hill, and thus, so far as I recol- 

 lect, came within reach of them. From how 

 great a distance they came I could not tell, 

 nor can I now say from or to what direction 

 of the compass they flew. The season, as 

 will be noticed, was early fall 



B: Pick-mail .Mann. 



DURATION OF LIFE IN AN 

 MERA. 



ElMIE- 



What is probably Ephemera ( Lcptopli- 

 lebia)cHpida, is common at Providence, R. I., 

 on the banks of the Seekonk about the middle 

 of May Of four specimens carefull\- taken, 

 some of them at different times, with a net 

 and allowed to fl_\- into a bottle, and then 

 transferred to a tumbler, one lived about 

 twelve hours, and another 24 and a third 48 

 hours. A fourth individual was captured 

 Saturday p. M., at five o'clock. It was in the 

 subimago stage, being of a dull slate-gra^- 

 with none of the reddish hues of tiie imago. 

 It lived about a day before moulting, when 

 the colors appeared. /. e.. flesh tints at the 

 base and on the costa of the fore wings, as 

 well as on the pterostigma. It had moulted 

 Monday and lived a full week after, being 

 observed alixe the following Monday morn- 

 ing, but was found dead in the tumbler Mon- 

 day morning. May, 14, 1888. It had thus lived 

 .over eight days, without taking food. Had 



