82 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, '02 



Identity of Hcmaris Tenuis and H. Diffinis. 

 By Ellison A. Smyth, Jr., Blacksburg, Va. 



I received additional confirmation this spring, that Hemaris 

 tenuis and H. diffinis were seasonal forms of one species, and 

 that the effect of winter upon either form in the pupa state, is 

 to produce H. temiis. 



Tenuis is the spring form, and diffinis the late summer form 

 from eggs of either form. 



In my article of the same caption as this, which appeared in 

 the Entomological News for November, 1900, on page 585, 

 I spoke of obtaining eggs from a captive female temcis on June 

 I, 1900, from which about thirty diffinis emerged by July 20th, 

 I ended the paragraph as follows : ' ' The balance of these pupae 

 at this writing (Sept. 13th) seem inclined to winter. Whether 

 they will emerge in the spring as H. tenuis or H. diffinis remains 

 to be seen." 



I carefully kept to themselves these pupae of tcmiis parent- 

 age, the bulk of which had emerged as diffinis, and on May 

 25, 1901, they commenced to emerge. Eighteen imagines ap- 

 peared : Of these, thirteen are small typical, light yellow, even 

 margined H. tenuis ; two are buff yellow like diffinis, with, 

 however, very slight emargination ; three have slight but dis- 

 tinct emargination and are white yellow like tenuis. All were, 

 of cour.se, smoky when they emerged, and those killed at once 

 retain the cloudy areas. 



Thus, early summer eggs from H. tenuis produced H. diffinis 

 later the same summer and pupae from the same brood, lasting 

 over the winter produced H. tenuis, the parent form, the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



1 have already abundantly .shown that eggs of //. diffinis, 

 hibernating as pupic, produce //. tenuis the following spring. 

 The (juestion of identity needs no further proof, though it will 

 be interesting to try the effect of artifficial cold on pupae from 

 tenuis eggs, which normally produce diffinis, to see if tenuis 

 will result. This I have not done yet. 



The alxjve specimens and the others illustrating my breed- 

 ing experiments arc all in my collection carefully labelled. 



