1 12 
Psyche 
[March 
of B. notoperates , it is certainly not the availability of a local or 
special moss. That generalization holds as well for those other species 
of Boreus for which associations with mosses have been specifically 
recorded; nearly all of the mosses concerned are widespread in Eu- 
rope, Asia and North America, and indeed quite a number have a still 
more extensive range than that. 
Variation Among Adults 
When B. notoperates was described (Cooper 1972), my series of 
29 specimens was nearly uniform with respect to antennal joint 
number, namely 19 joints — a feature used as a specific character. 
The only apparent exceptions that I noted I did not take to be such; 
they were a male and female, each of which had an incomplete sep- 
aration of joints-3 from 4, but these joints were otherwise demar- 
cated by their apical swellings. Since then I have found that indi- 
viduals do occur with antennal joint numbers other than 19—19. 
In a series of 86 males and 83 females held to determine their 
relative lengths of life in the laboratory (me? = 16 days, m$ = 22 
days; 0.05 > P > 0.02), the distributions of antennal joint numbers 
were : 
18-18 18-19 19-19 19-20 20-20 Total 
cT c? 12 4 68 1 1 86 
9 9 9 3 70 o 1 83 
Thus about 12% of B. notoperates have a different antennal joint 
number than 19-19. When numbers of 19-19 individuals are com- 
pared with the lumped totals of the others, there is no evident dif- 
ference between male and female (0.8 >P >0.7). Males with 
antennal joints fewer than 19-19 do tend to die somewhat earlier 
than the other males (m = 11 days), the Wilcoxon rank sum test 
giving 0.02 > P > 0.01. Such females also die somewhat earlier 
(m = 19 days), but not significantly so, for 0.5 > P > 0.4. 
Attention is also called to new information on patterns of ab- 
dominal fusions in males (Cooper 1 973 ) • 
Predators, Parasites and Life Cycle 
Very little has been recorded regarding the use of Boreus as prey. 
Withycombe (1922) was of the opinion that the adult would be 
expected “to be speedily devoured” by birds, unless distasteful. Greve 
