1899] • ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



in a sufficiently advanced stage to enable him tso determine it, and Prof. Riley said : (< It is 

 never safe to assume the identity of a fungus of this character unless it can be studied 

 when mature, especially as there are at least a couple of dozen species of Torrubia known 

 to inhabit insects." Mr. Ramsden informed me, that as the wet season had set in, he 

 would not be able to get any more for some time. 



Amongst other material received from Mr. Ramsden, was a pair of that occasional 

 visitor to this locality, Dilophonota ello, Fab. belonging to the Sphingidae. He had 

 taken the caterpillars in large numbers, feeding on a plant familiarly known there as 

 " Lechero." Some were of a reddish-purple color, but the majority were green. He 

 quoted Gundlach as saying they were destructive to the yucca crops in Cuba, they are 

 also found on the papaya (Carica papaya), but there is a parasite that attacks the larva, 

 Microgasier flaviventris, which keeps them in check. Mr. Ramsden bred a dipteron from 

 his pupa, specimens of which he sent to me, but it has not yet been determined. 



Also three specimens of Chloridea virescens, Fab. which he had bred from larva 

 taken on Tobacco plants. Mr. Ramsden quoted from Dr. Gundlach's " Entomologia 

 Cubana," the following about the larva of virescens : " Some were placed in a cage to- 

 gether with some of Danais ; Virescens attacked and ate the latter, also eating each 

 other ; and some he held in his hand bit him." The border of the hind wings of the 

 moth is usually blackish, but in one of those received from Mr. Ramsden the border was 

 beautifully tinged with red. Mr Bice took a single specimen of this southern insect in 

 London at light in the season of 1896. 



Of things received from Ouba, and occasionally taken in Canada, were specimens of 

 Terias nicippe, Eudioptis hyalinata and what appeared to be' Junonia coenia. 



Mr. Ramsden sent for identification and to be returned, as it was his first and only 

 specimen of a rare insect, which he had taken at light, a most singular looking creature. 

 At first glance it suggested a buttetfly and Dragonfly combined, as if made up for the 

 purpose of deception. It had conspicuously stout antennae, about an inch and a quarter 

 long, and heavily knobbed at the end, resembling those of a butterfly, with the long, nar- 

 row, and clear reticulated wings of a dragonfly. Upon close examination and compari- 

 son I was convinced that it belonged to the Ant-lions, and through the good office of Dr. 

 Bethune I was enabled to send to him the generic name of the creature. The Doctor 

 called my attention to Westwood's Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, 

 vol. 2, p. 41, on the Order Neuroptera, Family Myrmeleonidse, where there is a cut show- 

 ing stages and parts of a variety of species, and amongst the parts is an antenna corre- 

 sponding exactly to those of Mr. Ramsden's specimen, and on page 45, Prof. Westwood 

 referring to the figure says : " The genus Ascalaphus, Fab. is remarkable for the peculiar 

 structure of its antennae, which are very long and knobbed like those of a butterfly, (fig. 

 63, 21.), whence Scapoli and others described one of those insects as a Papilio." I see by 

 the Eleventh Report of the N Y. State Entomologist, page 239, that there are six species 

 of Ascalaphince listed by Banks as occurring in the United States ; five are southern 

 forms, and one is found as far north as Massachusetts. It is supposed that the larvae of 

 this genus do not make pitfalls. Several observations have been reported of the females 

 depositing their eggs on twigs of trees and blades of grass, and that the young lie in wait 

 under sticks and stones to seize their prey. An instance is given of a Ceylonese species, 

 Ascalaphus insimulans that makes no pitfalls. " Some young ones were found ranged in 

 a single row along the stem of a lily with the abdomen of each covered by the one be- 

 hind it, and with their jaws widely extended : in this manner they waited for their prey 

 to literally walk into their ja^s." Reference is made to some interesting notes pub- 

 lished by Prof. Westwood in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 

 1888, concerning this genus. It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity of 

 looking at so strange a creature, and it would be jet more gratifying to be in possession 

 of one. 



