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136
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Gary: Jamaican Sphingidae
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Vol.9: nos.4-5
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felt that these specimens were both smaller and paler than Erinnyis domingonis Butler of Florida or Mexico, or South America. In the series of E. domingonis from Jamaica in the collection at the Institute and in my own collection we find the size of Jamaican insects as large as those I have collected in Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela, and it is only in absolutely fresh specimens from Venezuela and Haiti that the heavier black shading is noticeable. These heavy black scales rub off at once except under expert handling, and we therefore believe that these somewhat paler specimens from Jamaica are best considered a form rather than a subspecies.
JEJlec Lane & Wissahickon Ave., Philadelphia 19, Pa., U. S. A.
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SPHINGIM COLLECTING IN JAMAICA AND HAITI, JUNE 1955
JOHN W. CADBURY III and I spent from the 8th of June until the end of June collecting Sphingidae in Jamaica and Haiti, This period was chosen for the dark of the moon to a great extent and was also after heavy early June rains. We used a 200 watt clear light bulb, hanging it in all cases about thirty feet above ground on balconies that looked out over dark, wooded country, in which grew the food plants of the scarce moths we were looking for.
At Christiana, Jamaica, 3,000 feet elevation, we were seeking Xylophanes jamaicensis Clark, named from two specimens, one at Carnegie Museum in the Clark, Holland, Oberthur collection and one at the Institute of Jamaica. Both had been captured near Christiana, and the foodplant, a species of Hamelia, grew in the wooded hills of this region. We spent three nights here without getting this moth, perhaps due to the fact that these nights were very cold and clear, but we were fortunate in finding a young scientist who lives there and who had seen the moth in the Institute collection. He has promised to try to get it for us.
However, on our next trip in Jamaica to a place called Bonnie View, 600 feet above Pon Antonio in a very tropical and well forested region looking towards both Blue and the wild John Crow mountains, we had great success, securing as far as is known the only male specimen of Isognathus rimosa jamaicensis R. & J. in any collection. Three females have been caught, one now in the Carnegie and two in the Institute collection. This was a freshly emerged and clearly marked specimen, whose photograph we will publish soon. We secured a fresh and clearly marked specimen of Nannoparce poeyi Grote, which we have also photographed since its freshness showed markings not clearly evident before. We caught a good many other nice Jamaican Sphinx moths such as Erinnyis lassauxi omphalece Boisduval, Erinnyis domingonis Butler, Xylophanes chiron Drury, etc., etc.
In Haiti where we had only three nights, we secured Erinnyis lassauxi me nana Grote, which I had never before taken, beautiful freshly emerged male and female specimens of Isognathus rimosa molitor R. & J., Erinnyis domingonis Butler, and many others. I have since received from Petit Goave, Haiti, a beautiful specimen of Perigonia manni Clark. It has taken eight trips to Jamaica and four to Haiti to secure some of these.
MARGARET M. CARY, Ellet Lane & Wissahickon, Philadelphia 19, Pa., U. S. A.
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