380 



PSYCHE. 



[July 1S90 



Food-plant of CARPocAPS^ saltitans. 

 — The food-plant of this torti-icid, the larva of 

 which is the cause of the so-called "Mexi- 

 can Jumping seeds," has been a matter of con- 

 siderable doubt. At a meeting of the nat- 

 ural history society of Glasgow, held 26 

 March 1889 (Proc. & trans., 1889, n. s. v. 3, 

 p. 26 Proc.) Mr. A. Somerville showed speci- 

 mens of Carpocapsa saltitans Westw.,bred 

 from the seed vessels of Colligiiaja odorifera. 

 Tiiis plant, one of the euphorbiaceae, is a 

 native of Chili, and was first described bj 

 Molina (History of Chili, English ed., v. i, 

 p. 291). Hooker (Bot. misc., 1830, v. i, p. 

 142, pi. 40) also describes and figures the 

 species and mentions that plants introduced 

 into greenhouses in Scotland thrive well. 

 In Chilian Colliguaja it is called "pichroa" 

 and from earlj' times has been used medicin- 

 ally. The moth was originally described by 

 Westwood (Proc. Ashmolean soc. Oxford, 

 i857> V. 3, p. 137-138: Trans, ent. soc. Lon- 

 don, n. s., v. 5, p. 27, Proc. for 7 June 1858) 

 from specimens bred from seed received 

 from Tassic, Mexico (cf Trans, ent. soc. 

 London, n. s., v. 4, p. 90, Proc. for 5 October 

 1857 and op. cit. , n. s., v. 5, p. 8, Proc. for 

 I March 1858. See also Gardener's chronicle 

 12 November 1S59, P- 909)- Westwood 

 gives the habitat a "Larva in seminibus 

 plantae Peruvianae Calliguaja dictae, quae 

 motu saltatorio mire progrediuntur." Sub- 

 sequently the species was described by 

 Lucas as Carpocapsa dehaisiana (see Ann. 

 soc. ent. France, 1858, s. 3, v. 6, p. Jo. t^t^, 41- 

 44, Bull; ibid, 1859, s. 3, v. 7, p. 561-566: 

 C. R. acad. sci. April 1858, v. 46, p. 685-6S9 : 

 Rev. et. mag. zool., April 1858, v. 10, p. 171- 

 177: ibid, November 1858, p. 470-484, pi. 

 16: L'Institut, 1858, v. 26, p. 127-128). 



Riley (Trans, acad. sci. St. Louis, 1876, 

 V. 3, p.'igo-igi, Proc.) mentions, on the au- 

 thority of Mr. G. W. Barnes of San Diego, 

 Cal., that the plant is called Yerba de flecha 

 and Colliguaja by the Mexicans, and in the 

 Proc. U. S. nat. mus., 1883, v. 5, p. 632-631; 

 states also on the authority of Mr. Barnes 

 "that the region of Mamos in Sonora is the 

 only place where the plant grows." 



Revision of the Mantidae. Prof. J. O. 

 Westwood's recently issued work on the man- 

 tidae entitled ''Revisio insectorum familiae 

 Mantidarum, specibus novis aiit ininus cogni- 

 tis descriptis et delineatis"' consists of a sj'n- 

 onymicul and bibliographical list of the 

 species, an appendix with descriptions of six 

 new genera and one hundred and eight new or 

 little known species, a bibliograph}' of the 

 family, an alphabetical index of the genera, 

 species and synomyms, a page of corrections 

 and additions and three pages explanatory 

 of the fourteen lithographic plates. One 

 hundred and eight species are figured. In 

 the list Prof. Westwood recognizes six- 

 teen groups, 154 genera and 645 species. 

 There are however some duplications in the 

 list and a few additional names are given in 

 the addenda. The Palaearctic region has 

 twenty-two genera and sixty-seven species; 

 five of the genera are strictly confined to this 

 region. The Nearctic region is especially 

 poor in species, there being but ten in the 

 list and of these Stagomantis dimidiata is a 

 dimorphic form of 5". Carolina. Of the six 

 genera none are peculiar to the region. The 

 species are, 



102. Gonastista grisea Fabr. N. Amer. 

 123. Oligonyx uhleri Stal. La. 

 125. scudderi Sauss. Geo.'" 



128. graminis Scudd. Fla. 



132. Thesprotia baculina Bates. St. Johns' 



Bluff, E. Fla. 

 163. Mantis wheeleri Thomas. Colorado. 



355. Stagomantis Carolina Linn. N. Amer. 



111. Car. Mex. 



356. dimidiata Burm. Amer. Pa. 



to Buenos Ayres. 

 359. minor Scudd. Neb. 



607. Pseudovates chlorophaea Blanch. U.S. 

 The Neotropical region is very rich in 

 species, about 175 being listed. There are 

 twenty-nine genera exclusively confined to 

 tliis region. The Australian region with 64 

 species has but six peculiar genera. The 

 Oriental region has 165 species and thirty 

 genera not found in any other region and 

 the Ethiopian region with i6S species has the 

 largest number of peculiar genera, namely 

 thirty-two. 



