

[53] PATAGONIAN LEPIDOPTERA. 165 



As the geographical distribution of our insects is at the 

 present time receiving much attention, this list of Prof. Berg 

 will be welcomed, from the care, apparently, with which he 

 determinations have been made, and the extension of observa- 

 tions to a country of whose Lepidoptera scarcely any thing was 

 previously known. 



The species recorded which also occur in the United States 

 are as follows : 



Callidryas Eubule Linn. ^eucania extranea Guen. 



Danais Archippus Fabr. Heliothis armiger lib. 



Pyrameishuntera v. lole Cram. Erebus odora Linn. 



Pyrameis Carye Hb. Asopia farinalis Linn. 



Pamphila Phylseus Drury. 2 Ephestia interpunctella Hb. 



Philampelus labruscse Linn. Nomophila hybridalis Hb. 



Philampelus vitis Linn. 3 Plutella xylostella Linn. 



Agrotis saucia Hb. 4 Pterophorus leucodactylus 

 Agrotis ypsilon Rott. Fabr. 



Collections of the larvae were also made, and a number of 

 them described : their food-plants and transformations were 

 also observed. A peculiarity of the caterpillars noticed by 

 Prof. Berg presents so wide a departure from normal habits 

 resulting from the modifying influence of surrounding condi- 

 tions, that we are led to give the following translation, in 

 full, of his statement : 



."It still remains for me to note a peculiarity of the cater- 

 pillars, viz., their extreme ferocity their cannibalistic propen- 

 sities. All of them, irrespective of family or group, manifest 

 the liveliest desire to kill their fellows. While confined they 

 ate only one another, seldom, if ever, touching the food- 

 plants. The caterpillars of the Bombycidse completely 

 devoured others of the same family, leaving absolutely no 

 fragments of them. They even tore open the cocoons, from 

 which they dragged out the pupae and ate them to which 

 fact I called the attention of my traveling companions. 



In like manner, the larvae of the Noctuidse acted among 

 themselves and toward the Bombycidse, and the latter toward 

 the former. Among these last, Heliothis armiger was glut- 

 tonous beyond all measure, one of them devouring in twenty- 

 four hours, from six to seven others. The caterpillar of 



1 L. unipuncta Haw. 2 P. cruciferarum Zetter. 



9 Tinea Zese Fitch. 4 Aciptilia alternaria ZelL 



