48 
Journal New York Entomological Society. 
[Vol. V. 
moths for their arrowy flight, which may balance the lower type of neura- 
tion in the Hawk moths. A result of my recent studies is the recogni¬ 
tion of the compact structure of the Sphingides , so that I return to a 
view published by me a long time ago, but since practically abandoned, 
that the family Sphingidce is probably only susceptible of tribal division. 
Such an instance does not occur a second time in the Lepidoptera, the 
series, certainly until we come to Acherontia , affording me no character 
which seems of sub-family value, corresponding in any way to the fea¬ 
tures which I have used as basis for these groups in the Saturniides. 
- ♦- 
OETA FLORIDANA Neumoegen. 
By Harrison G. Dyar, Ph.D. 
Mr. Neumoegen briefly described this form (Can. Ent., xxiii, 123) 
as a variety of O. aurea Fitch, from the upper Indian River, Florida. 
I have been acquainted with the larva for some time at Lake Worth and 
Miami, but only recently bred them to imago. The larvae live grega¬ 
riously in a large, loose and open web among the leaves of the bitter- 
wood tree, Simaruba glauca. They are unusually long and slender, of 
a dark brown color, and remaining motionless in the web, look like 
pieces of sticks accidently caught in a spider’s web. The pupa is 
formed in the same location and is colored in the same manner. 
O. floridana , larva. Slender, the abdominal segments elongated, one-half 
longer than thick, the thoracic segments not unusually elongated. Head rounded,, 
scarcely bilobed, prominent and proportionately large ; black, a labial line, bases of 
antennae, and the tubercles of the setae white ; width 2 mm. Thoracic feet large and 
well developed, the abdominal ones small, short, the crotchets simple, distributed 
rather regularly over the surface of the plant, not in rows. Setae simple, the sub¬ 
primaries present. The prothoracic shield is united with the pre-spiracular tubercle, 
forming a large shield, bearing the usual nine setae; subventral tubercle with three 
setae. Mesothorax with ia and ib, iia and iib, iv and v approximate, iii remote, vi 
with two setae. Abdominal setae somewhat modified on account of the lengthening 
of the segments; iv and v are drawn far apart and, though not more out of line than 
is frequent, v is slightly the more dorsad of the two, which, together with its remote 
position, suggests somewhat the condition found in the Sphingidae. Tubercles i and 
ii are nearly in line, iv is small and vi very large; vii is composed of one large and 
two small setae above the base of the foot. Otherwise normal. 
Color chocolate brown; a broad orange-brown dorsal band, reaching to tubercle 
ii and along joints 3 to 12, contains a dorsal row of small white spots and a similar 
border on each side; a row of tiny white dots above tubercle iii; another broad 
brown band subventrally, from tubercles v to vii and joints 4 to 11 , bordered above 
by a narrow pulverulent white line; a dark spot on tubercle vi; spiracles pale; setae 
white; length 25 to 30 mm. 
