SPECIFIC IDENTITY OF LUCINIA TOKREBIA. 203 



hairs must be an important factor, but, on the whole, those with 

 strongest and sharpest spines seem to be most active. If the 

 result be due simply to the hair penetrating the skin and then 

 working into the deeper layers and setting up irritation there, 

 hairs of Acronycta aceris should have similar effect to those of 

 Arctia caia. Unfortunately my own skin is not sufficiently sus- 

 ceptible to test this point. The only hairs which have any effect 

 on me are those of Lasiocampa quercus, L. ruhi, and O.potatoria, 

 which certainly act by piercing the skin and working in by means 

 of the barbs. Irritation is slow in coming on, but lumps are 

 raised which do not disappear for nearly a fortnight. 



If, however, the symptoms are not due to purely mechanical 

 causes, it certainly seems curious that the degree of virulence 

 so closely corresponds with what would be expected from their 

 structure. 



THE SPECIFIC IDENTITY OF LUCINIA TORREBIA, Mein. 

 By Percy I. Lathy, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



KiRBY, in his * Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera,' 

 p. 218, gives Haiti as the locality of Lucinia sida, Hiibn,, and 

 places L. torrebia, Men., as a synonym of Hiibner's species. 



I find, however, that specimens from Cuba agree with Hiibner's 

 figures of L. sida, and that the Lucinia from Haiti, which was 

 described by Menetries, Bull. Mosc. 1832, p. 310, n. 37, is distinct 

 from the Cuban form, consequently the name torrebia will stand 

 for the Haitan Lucinia. 



L. torrebia may be separated from L. sida by the following 

 characters : — The irregular median black band of the fore wing 

 above is only slightly broken, in L. sida the break is the width 

 of the space between middle and lower median nervules ; the black 

 band from costa to outer margin is very wide where it joins 

 margin, in L. sida it is extremely narrow ; tlje antemedial brown 

 band of the hind wing below is more irregular, and the white 

 area more extended ; but it is in the metallic blue-green spots of 

 the hind wing below that the chief difference is exhibited ; in 

 L. torrebia the upper series is composed of three almost equal 

 sized spots, with occasionally a fourth minute one ; in L. sida 

 the central spot is very much larger than the others, and the 

 spots of the lower series are considerably larger than the cor- 

 responding ones in L. torrebia. 



R 2 



