March — April 1890.] 



PSYCHE. 



327 



color, blackish in the centre. The 

 branchlets of. the spines are all bright 

 chestnut in color. Underside as well 

 as the feet and abdominal legs dull 

 black. Length, 3.00 inches." 



It is interesting to compare the gener- 

 ic forms. It is usually impossible to 

 draw up comparative descriptions of 

 caterpillars while living, from the obvi- 

 ous fact that one may only have a single 

 species under observation, alive at one 

 time, and for this reason a collection of 

 carefully preser\'ed alcoholic, as well as 

 of blown specimens is all important ; 

 and I may add that for the careful 

 study of structural features I much pre- 

 fer good alcoholic specimens to blown 

 ones, if the caterpillar has been at first 

 killed in very weak alcohol, and, say, a 

 couple of days later transferred to strong 

 alcohol, so that the body does not become 

 too much contracted, and the coloration 

 faded. 



I will novs^ add a description of some 

 alcoholic specimens of Heinilenca ?naia 

 contained in the Museum at Cambridge, 

 drawn up as long ago as 1862 or 1863. 

 They occurred in New Jersey in Juh' 

 and were compared with Pseiidohazis 

 eglaitteriiia. 



It is larger, the head larger and dark 

 mahogany in color. There is the same 

 arrangement of spines, but in H. niaia 

 they are throughout longer than in P. 

 eglanteri7ia ; they are much stouter, 

 and are paler at the ends. The surface 



of the body is marbled with pale flat 

 tubercles. The underside of the body 

 is naked, where in P. eglavtei-ina it is 

 somewhat hairy. 



At another time I compared mature 

 H. maia from Georgia with H. ?'o, with 

 the following results. The head in the 

 two genera is of the same size, but in 

 H. maia it narrows towards the vertex. 

 The clypeus of the latter genus is a little 

 larger, and the sides bulge out rather 

 than curve in as in H. io^ and the sur- 

 face is more sunken. The body is 

 rather more elongated and slenderer 

 than in H. io. There is a median dor- 

 sal line, and two subdorsal broad bands, 

 dotted with light oval spots in H. maia. 

 The suranal plate is elongated lunate, 

 approaching a triangular shape. The 

 sides of the anal lip are thickened 

 throughout, more so than in H. io. 



Note. — The author would take this 

 opportunity to say that he is collecting 

 materials for a monograph of all the 

 Bombyces with especial reference to 

 complete life histories, to be illustrated 

 by colored plates. He is especially 

 anxious to obtain the eggs of any spe- 

 cies of Gasti'opacha as well as the ma- 

 ture larva, also those of any species of 

 Hemilcuca., Pseudohazis and Hyper^ 

 chiria except those above mentioned, 

 and also desires the eggs and larvae of 

 the species of Etclejicop/iaczts., Colora- 

 dia and ^iiadrina. 



