l893-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 77 



NOTES ON THE NOTODONTIAN GENUS ICHTHYURA. 



By A. S. Packard, Providence, R. I. 



From an examination of the collection of the late Henry Ed- 

 wards, in the Museum of American Natural History of New- 

 York, and my own collection, I believe that the number of spe- 

 cies of this genus will have to be considerably reduced. I have 

 arrived at the following results, subject to future correction, when 

 our collections of the moths themselves shall be more complete, 

 both in bred series and in specimens from widely scattered locali- 

 ties, differing in meterological featured, and when our knowledge 

 of the larval histories will be far more extensive than at present. 

 It is a pity that entomologists feel called upon to describe sup- 

 posed new species, when, as is often the case, they are merely 

 local or climatic varieties. A number of species of North Amer- 

 ican Bombyces range from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. In 

 the damp eastern and northern States they tend to melanism; in 

 the dry, hot region of Utah, Arizona, and other portions of the 

 Great Basin, they tend to become pale or whitish gray, having a 

 faded appearance, while in California with its great range of 

 climate, from the wet and cool mountain regions of the Sierra 

 Nevada to the dry parched desert tracts of Southern California, 

 the conditions are favorable for the production of remarkable 

 variations. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Beutenmiiller, 

 the Curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History, 

 for giving me access to Mr. Edwards' collection. 



The more typical American species is / iiiclusa KUb. , of which 

 / palla French is a pale form. I owe to the kindness of Prof. 

 French two type specimens; one of them is exactly like a pale 

 normal indusa, the costal silvery line being nearly straight, as in 

 iticlusa, and thus readily separable from var. ornata, the pale 

 form of /. vau Fitch. 



Ichthyurar vau Fitch, {Clostera incarcerata Boisduval, 1869). 

 After examination of my type of /. indentata in the Harris col- 

 lection I find it agrees with Fitch's description. I regard / or- 

 nata G. & R. as only a climatic variety of Fitch's vau, and a 

 specimen of / ornata G. & R., so labeled by Mr. Edwards, is 

 also labeled " incarcerata Boisd. ;" and on comparing Boisduval' s 

 description oi incarcerata with specimens o{ ornata from California, 

 Truckee Valley, Reno, Nevada, and Colorado, I do not see any 

 specific differences. 



