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1956
The Lepidopterists' News
111
FIELD NOTES
THE STATUS OF CISTHENE SUBJECT A (ARCTIIOdE) ON LONG ISLAND, N. Y.
The little Arctiid moth, Cisthene subjecta Walker, has been recorded breeding on Long Island. However, no preserved material can be located or living collectors who have seen the moth on the island, except the series from Orient. For a long period, 1915 to 1949, none was noted in Orient. A single moth appeared in 1949 and two to five each season thereafter until 1955, when, with only a part of those observed taken, a series of 86 specimens was collected at light in Orient. They include both sexes, mostly in fresh condition. The rapid increase in the past six years indicates a local breeding colony. This presumption is substantiated by the old Long Island breeding record at Bellport, recorded by Dr. H. G. Dyar (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mm. 23: 266-268; 1901) who described the eggs and larvae of C. subjecta. the eggs August 9th and the larvae hibernating in October. If the individuals here are southern migrants, why the long span of 34 years with no record and why the local concentration in Orient?
All the material observed at light in Orient has been in August, from the 9th to the 30th. A tabulation of the 1955 data shows a maximum of 34 moths on August 15th, 20 on the 16th, 17 on the 17th, 14 on the 20th, and one on the 30th. The food plant is listed as lichens.
This is a brightly colored moth when the wings are expanded. With wings closed, as they frequently are at light, the moth is small and unobtrusive with a coleopterous appearance.
The species apparently breeds regularly, north to Delaware. There is a single old record, 1868, from Nantucket Island in the Boston Society of Natural History, listed by KIMBALL in The Lepidoptera of Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard (1943). I have not investigated other northern records outside Long Island.
Roy Latham, Orient, L. I., N. Y., U. S. A.
MELANIC DANAUS AND COLIAS NEAR CHICAGO
Two unusual captures in the Chicago area may be of interest to readers of The Lepidopterists' News.
On August 15, 1954, at Hammond, Indiana, Mr. EUGENE Dluhy caught a specimen of Danaus plexippus, a male, that was decidedly out of the ordinary in appearance. On the upper side, all white spots and the yellow spots between the cell and apex of primaries are replaced by black. The three brown areas near the apex are faintly indicated, but the checkered white margin on all wings appears as usual. These changes leave the normal central brown area bordered by deep black with a large black apical area. Veins are black as customary. The under side shows the yellow apical spots about as in the normal form; in place of the white submarginal spots are three small pale bluish spots in a single row; two costo-apical white spots are replaced by two much smaller bluish white spots and two white spots midway between cell and apex are indicated in a similar manner. On the secondaries only one white spot is indicated, that being in the subcostal interspace. Basal white spots and those on the body are present as normally. Expanse, 4 inches.
On August 5, 1955, Mr. DONALD OEMICK caught a melanic specimen of Colias philodice, a male, in which the normal black border of all wings was of a dark olive green and the normal yellow area entirely black. The specimen was perfect. High temperature that day was 90°F. The place of capture was near the West shore of Lake Calumet just south of the Sherwin Williams paint manufacturing plant in a heavily industrial district. A busy highway lies between the lake and the place of capture, adding to the factory fumes. That the smoky and gaseous atmosphere, such as exists here, may be the cause of such melanism, has often been contended.
ALEX K. WYATT, 5842 N. Kirby Ave., Chicago 30, 111., U. S. A.