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1956
The Lepidopterists' News
109
NOTES ON MEGATHYMUS POLINGI (MEGATHYMID^) by Don B. Stallings and J. R. Turner
Megathymus polingi Skinner is another of the species of Megathymus that does not appear to have been collected in recent years. For many years the only specimen in our collection was a single male that was collected about the time that the species was named.
Due to misidentification of this species (we have seen specimens of at least three other species labelled M. polingi) there has been a question in some peoples' mind as to whether M. polingi was a good species. Since 1946 we had felt sure that we knew the food plant, but it was not until September of 1955 that Dr. and Mrs. R. C. Turner succeeded in collecting larvae of this species. Of the twelve larvae they collected between Redington and Tucson, Arizona, nine pupated and emerged from Sept. 27th to October 16th.
This species, which is the smallest of the known species in the U. S. A., is easily identified by the well defined yellow-white discal band across the under-surface of the secondaries. The genitalia are also distinctive. The food plant is Agave schottii Engelmann. This species of Agave belongs to the group of species with the inflorescence spicate and is the smallest of true Agave in the U. S. A. The plant is so small that the larvae are unable to use the leaves alone for the larval cavity but must bore over half of the cavity in the base of the plant. They do not make an outlet until shortly before they pupate. The outlet, which comes through several leaves, has the usual "trap-door". We doubt that M. polingi uses any food plant other than A. schottii.
Megathymus polingi, M. marice Barnes & Benjamin, and M. stephensi appear to be the only Agave feeders in the U. S. A. which, during the larval stage, deposit their excrement outside the burrow, similar to the Yucca feeders. The other Agave feeders in the U. S. A. have little or no excrement to dispose of; at least there is no external sign of it.
Caldwell, Kansas, U. S. A.
W
The check list of the Lepidoptera of Florida, by C. P. KIMBALL, is nearly ready for the printer. It has been held so that the new HEINRICH Phycitinse revision could be used for the treatment of that subfamily in the check list. Some colored plates will be printed in the list, which is to be published by the Florida State Plant Board.
C. L. Remington