42(5 Miscellaneous. 



Mr. Potts called attention to its green and apparently living and 

 growing condition, during midwinter, in that northern latitude, as 

 indicating that like Spongitla aspinosa, of the New Jersey swamps, 

 this species also is an " evergreen," continuing its life in the 

 normal state throughout the year, and for this reason not needing 

 to form "protected genimules '' in such abundance as do other 

 species. 



At the suggestion of Mr. McKay, to whose enthusiastic search 

 we owe its discovery, the local specific name pictouensis has gladly 

 been given to this species. — Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., Feb. 24, 

 1885, p. 28. 



An Example of Samia Cecropia having a fifth Aborted Winy. 

 By Hermann Sirecker. 



1 have lately received from Mr. Ph. Laurent, of Philadelphia, an 

 example of Samia Cecropia, bred by him from a cocoon, having an 

 aborted, or rather the portion of a third primary. It is a male of the 

 ordinary size, expanding about 5| inches, and is one of those smoky 

 varieties in which the red portion of the transverse bands on the wings 

 is very much narrowed. The right primary and both secondaries 

 are normal in shape and marking. The left primary is in length 

 from base to apex exactly the same as is the light ; but in width 

 from inner angle across to the costa it is -^ inch less ; the mark- 

 ings are the same, allowing for a little condensing owing to the 

 difference in the width. The venation is normal in all the wings ; 

 the left primary is also somewhat narrower at the base where it joins 

 the body : the inner margin is in exact line with that of its fellow, 

 thus causing the wing at costa, where it joins the thorax, to be 

 further in from the collar and head than its opposite. 



The third primary, or rather portion of a primary, emerges from 

 the side of the collar, and consists mainly of the costal and subcostal 

 nervures, a small part of the median nervure, and a strip of wing 

 about a quarter of an inch wide ; but the latter was much curled 

 and twisted in drying, and does not show this width fully. Its 

 length is about two thirds that of the normal wing, with which it 

 runs parallel, but it is in no way visibly connected therewith. 



This form of monstrosity is apparently of exceedingly great rarity. 

 I have heard of only three other instances — those recorded by Prof. 

 Westwood in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1879, pp. 220, 221, in 

 which three diurnals are described, each possessing a third aborted 

 right-hand secondary. In one of them, an example of Gonepteryx 

 Rhamni, the normal right wing is much less than the left, the same 

 with the second example, a Vanessa Urticce, leading to the conclu- 

 sion in those cases, as with the Cecropia, that the abnormal wing 

 was produced at the expense of the normal. 



In the two cases just cited, the extra wing is joined at the base 

 of the eosta to the proper wing ; in the third case mentioned by 

 Prof. "Westwood, it is apparently a streak or strip, as it were, on the 

 inferior surface of right secondary, distinguished from the rest of 

 the wing, or the part thereof, by the difference in colour aud mark- 

 ing alone. 



