316 



Fig 



Oastnia cronis, var. 

 (original). 



corningii, male 



BIRTH OF A BEAUTIFUL EXOTIC LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECT IN 



NEW YORK. 



By Henry Edwards, Netv York City. 



Some years since Mr. William Grey, of Albany, called my attention to 

 a most beautiful Castnia of which he had raised both $ and 9 from 

 the roots of an orchid in the hot-house of Erastus Corning, esq., of 

 Albany, and was so good as to furnish me with an excellent drawing 

 of the $ insect, as well as to allow me a sight of the specimens, from 



which I made at the time a full de- 

 scription, intended for publication 

 in " Papilio." By some means, how- 

 ever, my notes were mislaid, and 

 have only now been recovered. I 

 hasten, therefore, to place on record 

 the facts with reference to the spe- 

 cies, and if these lines should reach 

 the growers of orchids or lilaceous 

 plants, to beg them to look care- 

 fully in their plant-houses for any 

 such strange visitors as the pres- 

 ent. The larvse of the Castnias and those of the allied genus Synemon 

 are internal feeders, and are found in the stems or roots of plants belong- 

 ing to the natural orders Bromeliacece, Iridacece, Lilacew, Aynaryllidacece^ 

 and Orchidacecv. The pujia, like that of Cossus, and Hepiahis, is fur- 

 nished with a series of small hooked spines on the segments of the abdo- 

 men, and when ready to undergo its change to the imago state works 

 itself by aid of these spines close to the entrance of its burrow, the 

 pupa being protruded beyond it on the emergence of the insect. In the 

 excellent, but too brief, monograph of the group by Prof. J. O. West- 

 wood are given excellent figures of the transformations of a Chilian 

 species, C. eudesmis Gray, which will give a clear idea of the structure 

 of the early stages. The species in question differs considerably from 

 the type to which it must be referred, and I propose, therefore, to dis- 

 tinguish it by a varietal name, viz : 



Castnia cronis Cram., var. Corningii. — Ground color of the -wing, velvety black. 

 Disk with a clear white mark, ruuning parallel with internal margin, and reaching 

 nearly to the base, whence it is separated by a narrow black line from another white 

 triangular spot which touches the thorax, at the extreme base of the wing. On the 

 upper edge this mark runs obliquely but almost parallel with costa, to about the cen- 

 ter of the wing ; there it is cut off straight along the corner of the median vein. The 

 space thus inclosed covers about one-third of the whole wing. On the costa is a 

 large ovate spot, and along the margin, only near the internal angle, are 5 sub- 

 triangular spots, and 2 oblong spots at the apex, all clear white. The costa is reddish 

 at the base. Secondaries yellow-white, with rather narrow black margin slightly 

 dentate on the inner edge. Beneath, the markings are repeated, but the ovate mark 

 on costa of primaries, is here triangular, and there is a second triangular mark nearer 



