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1952
The Lepidopterists' News
107
FIELD AND TECHNIQUE NOTES
UNUSUAL PUPATION SITE FOR NYMPHAL1S CALIFORNICA
The accompanying photograph of Nymphalis califomica (Bdv.) chrysalids shows pupation in a location and in concentrations not reported heretofore. The chrysalids are suspended from the underside of a hollowed piece of driftwood which when found was completely buried beneath the soil except for the knot-hole, upper left, which served as an entry for mature migrating caterpillars. The unusual location may have been induced by heavy parasitism prior to pupation. Not a single adult butterfly emerged, but instead there were hundreds of hymenopterous parasites. The specimen was collected early in August 1952 near Bucks Lake, Plumas County, California, by H. A. DOCKHAM, a resident of Berkeley.
Ordinarily pupation takes place on the bare defoliated twigs of several Ceanothus species on which the caterpillars feed. The chrysalids occur in large numbers suspended downward, but are rarely seen in such heavy concentrations as shown here. Defoliated brush-fields often quiver from the abdominal motion of these creatures when they are disturbed.
Nymphalis adult flights and caterpillar defoliations were unusually heavy throughout California mountainous areas this year.
GEORGE R. STRUBLE, Entomologist, U. S. Bureau of Entomology & Plant Quarantine 29 Forestry Building, University of California, Berkeley 4, Calif., U. S. A.
A MUTANT OF STRYMON TITUS TITUS
Among several specimens of Strymon t. titus Fabr. taken near Tremont, Porter County, Indiana, on July 6, 1952, there was one female with the typical lighter coloration and the clear white rings around the orange and black spots on the underside of the hind wings, that are characteristic of the southern subspecies S. titus mopsus Hbn. Indeed a close comparison with specimens of mopsus taken near Birmingham, Alabama, and near Stone Mountain, Atlanta, Georgia, the aberrant northern specimen proved to be indistinguishable from the southern type. Such occurrence seems to have some bearing on the problem of speciation.
HARRY SlCHER, Loyola University School of Dentistry, Chicago 12, 111., U.S.A.