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Volume 24, Number 4
239
dark purplish-brown, variably and irregularly marked with white, usually lightly so. Midvental area dirty yellow-grey.
Various gradations between these macular forms may also be found.
Head width: 2.86 ± 0.11 mm (23 larvae).
Duration of fifth stadium of larvae maturing in five stadia: 7.8 ± 1.5 clays (21 larvae).
Duration of sixth stadium of larvae maturing in six stadia: 6.4 ±1.5 days (41 larvae).
Pupa (Figs. 7, 8). Uniform orange-brown. Spiracles on a level with general surface of cuticle or borne in very shallow depressions. Anterior areas of abdominal segments 4, 5, 6, and 7 rather heavily pitted; dorsal surface of abdominal segments 1, 2, 3, and 8 moderately pitted. Proboscis terminating between apexes of wings. Cremaster consisting of two, rather short setae borne at the apex of a conical prolongation of the tenth abdominal segment.
Length to posterior margin of fourth abdominal segment: 11.5 ± 0.8 mm (14 pupae).
Acknowledgment
I appreciate the assistance of my associate, Mr. E. W. Rockburne in measuring larval structures, and in drawing the cremaster area of the pupa.
Literature Cited
Crumb, S. E. 1956. The larvae of the Phalaenidae. U.S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bull.
1135, 365 pp. Forbes, W. T. M. 1954. Lepidoptera of New York and neighboring states, Part III.
Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta. Mem. 329, 433 pp. Gardner, J. C. M. 1946. On larvae of the Noctuidae (Lepidoptera)—I. Trans. R.
ent. Soc. Lond. 96: 61-72. Hard wick, D. F. 1958. Taxonomy, life history, and habits of the elliptoid-eyed
species of Schinia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), with notes on the Heliothidinae.
Can. Ent. Suppl. 6, 116 pp. Prentice, R. M. (compiler) 1962. Forest Lepidoptera of Canada, Vol. 2. Canada
Dept. Forestry Bull. 128, 281 pp. Walker, F. 1857. List of the specimens of Lepidopterous insects in the collection
of the British Museum, Part 11. London.
A MELANIC ABERRATION OF PAPILIO CRESPHONTES (PAPILIONIDAE)
In 1964, I caught an extreme melanic specimen of Papilio cresphontes Cram. The specimen was taken in New Orleans during migrating season, probably in November. It is of normal size and nearly all black with small amounts of white where yellow should be. The hind wings are nearly all black. The specimen, considerably broken when caught, was sent to Dr. Alexander B. Klots at the American Museum of Natural History in February of 1970 for identification. His return letter stated that the museum has nothing like it, and that although several Society members have recorded melanism, none are as extreme as this.
Vernon A. Brou Jr., Route 1, Box 74, Edgard, Louisiana.