482 



that the coloring is affected chiefly during the stage before the coloring 

 of the perfect insect begins to show; that a low temperature during 

 this stage causes darkening, a high temperature producing the opposite 

 effect, a difference between 80° and 57° being sufficient to produce the 

 extreme variation in darkness caused by temperature ; a further lower- 

 ing of temperature having no further effect; that nearly the full effect 

 in coloring may be produced by a range of temperature of from 70° or 

 80° to 65° in aututmiaria, and from 73° to 60° in illustraria ; that dry- 

 ness or moisture during the entire pupal period has no appreciable 

 effect on the coloring of the adult. 



A general conclusion which the author ventures to suggest — provided 

 we accept the theory of Professor Weismann tliat existing forms of 

 North American and European Lepidoptera have come down from a 

 glacial i^eriod — is, that "icing" the i)upa causes the insect to revert to 

 its earlier form, and that experiments of the nature here recorded might 

 be of material assistance in tracing the evolution of the markings on 

 the wings of the most highly develoi^ed forms. 



In a sui>plementary note Mr. Merrifield adds that it is possible to 

 cause either the summer or winter form to take on the coloring of the 

 other, and produce from moths from the summer pup;e, specimens that 

 resemble those from the winter pupje, but not vice versa. The paper, 

 including a table and supplementary notes, covers thirteen pages of 

 text, and is illustrated by a plate of 10 life-like chromo-lithographic 

 figures, 



ANOTHER CARNIVOROUS BTTTTERFLY. 



The North American Feniseca tarquinius was the first Diurnal Lepi- 

 dopterou known to be carnivorous iu the larva state, its food being 

 various species of Pemphigus (See Eiley's remarks. Am. Nat. for June 

 1886). We now learn from Mr. de Niceville's great work on Butterflies 

 of India, Burmah, and Ceylon, vol. ill (as reviewed by JMr. S. II. Scud- 

 der, in Can. Unt., vol.22, No. 10, October, 1890), that the East Indian Ly- 

 ctenid genus Spalgis has also carnivorous habits, the larva preying upon 

 a species of Dactylopius. Dr. Holland's suggestion {Can. Etit., vol. 19, 

 No. 4, April, 1887, p. 61) that the East Indian Liphyra brassolis might also 

 have a carnivorous larva was based solely upon similarity in structure 

 of the imago and has not yet been confirmed by actual observation. 



SILK NEST OF A MEXICAN SOCIAL LARVA. 



We have received through the kindness of Dr. Edward Palmer a 

 delicate silk bag, perhaps 6 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep, which 

 was sent to him iu March, 1889, by Sefior Liborio Yasquez, of Monte- 

 zuma, Mexico, and concerning which his correspondent writes : 



The Silkworm wliicli makes the bas inclosed lives on the slirnb called Madrono. It 

 feeds on the wood of the tree and appropriates its fruit the entire year. I have seen it 

 in the temperate (warm) climate of the Sierra Madre, -where it occurs on a grand 



