52 . ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 



NOTES ON CALLIMORPHA. 



By J. T. Mason, Houston, Texas. 



During the past season I learned something new, to me, about 

 Callimorphia LeContei* which may be of interest to some of 

 your readers, and if it is not out of place here, I would like to 

 suggest that if collectors would give their various experiences in 

 the field in non technical language, so that we unscientific readers 

 can understand and profit by it, it would prove both interesting 

 and instructive. I was anxious to get as many varieties of Le- 

 Contei this season as possible for my own collection. I have 

 over seventy, no two exactly alike, and I knew of a place in the 

 suburbs of this city, not more than four acres in extent, where I 

 had last year caught a large number, but all of the lemon variety. 

 I was anxious to find the white, and a friend told me that the 

 white came out first, and that I had missed the first brood last 

 year; I had made a note of the date, and I commenced watching 

 the place three weeks before the time I had set for their appear- 

 ance; they showed up on time, but were all lemon as before. I 

 caught what I wanted and then went to see my friend; he told 

 me that he had caught his white ones at the Crosstimbers, some 

 six or seven miles from town. The following day I drove down 

 to the place and made a thorough search, but failed to find a 

 single specimen. Towards evening I turned homeward, discour- 

 aged. In crossing the prairie the road passes through a few 

 scattered pines, and while driving through them I saw one cross 

 the road, a pure white one; I caught it and searched around 

 there, but found no more. I had not driven over two hundred 

 yards when another crossed in front of me, also white. I got 

 out and searched again, and found them in quantities. Now I 

 come to the peculiar feature: while the first were all lemon, so 

 these were all white. I did not find, out of possibly a thousand 

 caught, one single lemon one, notwithstanding that a few days 

 afterwards I found another lot of lemon on this same prairie not 

 over one mile distant from the latter, and there was no white 

 amongst them. Now the question I ask myself is, why do the 

 two colors keep separate? they are undoubtedly the same moth. 

 Here are two separate colonies within a mile of each other, on 



• The two insects herein mentioned are C suffusa Smith and C. lactata Smith, which are 

 probably forms of Colona Hbn. ==■ Clymene Esp.— Ed. 



