THE SEMTTROPICAL ARMY WORM. 57 
joint 5, sharply reappearing at joint 5 posteriorly, then pale yellow, centered 
with blackish mottlings at the centers of the segments and red above these; 
Bubventral region black-shaded, strongly so on joints 2 to 5, weakly on the ab- 
domen, white-dotted, paling to the venter; thoracic feet dark brown, the ab- 
dominal ones pale brown, shining; a single cylindrical, round-tipped neck gland 
reaching to the end of the labial palpi ; crochets of abdominal feet in a single 
row, dark; tubercle iv sligbtly above middle of spiracle on joint 7. [Harrison 
G. Dyar.] 
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION. 
This is a Lower Austral form and probably of tropical origin. In 
the National Museum are specimens from Cocoanut Grove, Crescent 
City, and Orlando, Fla. The species is also recorded from Talla- 
hassee, and reported from St. Augustine and the region about the 
Manatee River in Florida. From Texas we have specimens from Bos- 
que County (Belfrage) and Dallas, and there are specimens col- 
lected at Pernambuco, Benito Province, Brazil, by Mr. Albert Koebele. 
Dr. J. B. Smith records the insect from Georgia and Central and 
South America, and Grote records it from California. This indi- 
cates a range extending from Brazil to Mexico, Central America, and 
the Antilles, and from Florida westward through the Gulf region and 
Texas to California. 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY. 
Considering the fact that this species is really common in the 
South and that it feeds gregariously and voraciously, it is somewhat 
remarkable that it has not hitherto attracted attention by its depre- 
dations. The moth was described by Pierre Cramer in 1782. 1 a 
Its natural food plants were known to Smith and Abbot, who wrote 
of it in their classic work published in 1797. 2 The illustration ac- 
companying that work, though over-colored as usual, depicts a per- 
fectly recognizable moth of this species but a too-brilliant and light- 
colored larva. Light and dark forms of the moth are figured. The 
species is mentioned as PhaloBna phytolaccce and is compared with the 
related Prodenia commelince and Laphygma frugiperda^ which form 
the subject of the two plates and pages immediately preceding the 
account of phytolaccce. 
As Smith and Abbot's work is not accessible to many, the following 
copy of their account of this insect is republished: 
IMIAI..KNA PHYTOLACCA Poko-\Y('0(t llioth. 
Phytolacca decandra. Linn. Virginian poke-weed. 
Ph. Noctua spirilinguis cristata, aiis deflexis: primoribus rusco striatis 
puncto obscuro margine postico nigro macula to; anterior] punctato. 
" Numbers in superior type refer to corresponding numerals in the appended 
bibliographical list (i». TO). 
