August— October 1891. 



PSYCHE. 



397 



and Thyrcus^i as well as P/iilampclns 

 and Chaerocampa. I had no intention 

 of doing any work in this family, and 

 the notes are not intended to be at all 

 final, but imperfect as they are, they 

 show how interesting it would be to 

 know something of the early larval stages 

 of the American species of Ampkio/i., 

 T'/iyrczis, Eiiyo., Deilcphlla., Ph/latn- 

 pelus., and certain tropical forms, to 

 which the genera in question are allied. 



Life-histo7-v of Deidamla insc7-if- 

 tiim. {Ham's.) 



Mr. James Angus, of West Farm, 

 N. V. had the goodness to send me the 

 eggs of this sphingid, which is allied 

 to Phyrens abbotii., and I was able to 

 carry it through its stages, while in 

 Brunswick, Maine. As the climate is 

 much cooler there than in New York, 

 the nights especially being much lower in 

 temperature, the length of the different 

 stages will probably be found to be much 

 greater than in New York, The larva, 

 according to Mr. H. Edwards's very 

 useful Bibliographical catalogue of the 

 described transformations of North 

 American lepidoptera, has been briefly 

 described by Strecker (Rhopal. et Het- 

 ei'oc. ; 112) andbyFernald (Sphingidae 

 New England, 70,) but the early stages 

 have not yet been described. The des- 

 cription of the larva In Strecker's work 

 was however given him by Mr. John 

 Akhurst, from memory, and Prof. 

 Fernald's description is simply copied 

 from Strecker. According to Akhurstthe 

 larva is -'full-grown about the last of 

 June or beginning of July, and is single- 



brooded, the perfect insect appearing 

 about the middle of May. Several 

 moths issued in Providence the end of 

 May and early in June from pupae 

 kindl}' given me by Mr. Angus, but 

 though several males and females were 

 placed within the mating bag no 

 fertilized eggs were obtained. The 

 eggs from which my larvae w^ere bred 

 were received from Mr. Angus, 24 

 June 1S90. 



Egg. — Rounded oval, rounded alike at 

 each end, somewhat longer than broad, 

 length 2 mm. ; greenish in color. The 

 shell is thin, smooth wdien examined 

 under a Tolles triplet of high powder, 

 and also under a J inch Tolles objective, 

 but with the latter, scattered roughnesses 

 are perceivable, though not foi ming 

 true granulations. 



Stage I. — Just hatched on the 

 morning of 27 June. Length 3^ to 

 4 mm. Head rather larger, wider than 

 the botly, which tapers somewhat from 

 the prothoracic segment to the end. It is 

 uniformlv smooth, pale yellowish green, 

 the head being exactl}' the same color 

 as the body. There are on the body no 

 spots or markings of any kind. The 

 body is provided with long slender 

 sparse, grandular, slightly bulbous 

 hairs, about one-third as long as the 

 diameter of the body, which arise from 

 small minute conical warts. The hairs 

 on the head taper to a fine point. 



The very slender, filamental " caudal 

 horn" is, if anything, slightly longer 

 than the body ; it is held erect, perpen- 

 dicularlv to the body, and is shining 

 black and very hairy, the hairs being 



