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Volume 25, Number 2
143
NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TWO RARE LEPIDOPTERA IN SOUTH CAROLINA
In late May and early June of 1970, I discovered a colony of Satyrium kingi (Klots and Clench) in Dorchester County at the county line on highway 642 where Dorchester and Charleston counties meet. As far as I have been able to determine this is the first Dorchester County records, and possibly the first record for the state in the Coastal Plain.
In July, a colony of Euphyes bimacula (G. & R.) was found just east of Summer-ville, S. C. in Berkely County near the junction of U. S. A17 and 1-26, and to the northwest of this junction. According to Klots (1951, A Field Guide to the Butterflies) this is well south of its supposed range.
Ronald R. Gatrelle, 35 Reddin Rd., Apt. i, Charleston, South Carolina.
VAN SOMEREN BUTTERFLY COLLECTION TO THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
This magnificent collection of the butterflies of East Africa, mostly from Kenya, Uganda, and north Tanganyika, plus the adjacent areas of southern Ethiopia, Somali, and eastern Congo, has been donated to the American Museum of Natural History. It represents over 60 years of work by Dr. V. G. L. van Someren, with the specimens being obtained both by catching and by rearing; it is one of the largest and most complete collections of butterflies from the above area. The collection consists of 22,931 specimens; of this total, 18,497 are butterflies; there are 258 slides of genitalia, and 4,176 specimens of early stage material, particularly of Charaxes. As far as I know, this is the largest single collection of African butterflies to come to the United States at one time.
The specimens of this collection have been studied and identified by many specialists and have been included in their revisionary studies on African butterflies. These include W. H. Evans' "A Catalogue of the African Hesperiidae" (1937), H. Stempf-fer's "The Genera of the African Lycaenidae" (1967), and Dr. van Someren's own "Revisional Notes on African Charaxes" (1963-1969, with more parts to be published), just to mention a few. Dr. van Someren has reared many species of Charaxes and has made a sizable collection of cast larval head capsules and of pupae; this valuable material came with the collection.
No holotypes or allotypes are included with the collection. Dr. van Someren has deposited his type specimens, as well as a portion of his butterfly collection, in the entomological section of the British Museum (Natural History).
Frederick H. Rindge, Dept. of Entomology, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
A MELANIC ABERRATION OF PHYCIODES THAROS (NYMPHALIDAE)
A striking female aberration of Phyciodes tharos (Drury) emerged 29 May 1969 from a laboratory brood reared from a wild-inseminated female collected four miles east of Cedar Key, Levy Co., Florida, 29 March 1969. All rearing was done using a 16-hour daily photophase at 27° C and with Aster ericoides L. as the larval food-plant.
A comparison of the melanic female with a normal sibling female shows that all of the black pattern elements of both the dorsal and ventral wing surfaces have spread into the fulvous areas between them, leaving light pigmentation only in the central parts of normally fulvous areas. The ventral "pearl crescent" near the anal margin of the hind wing has been completely covered by dark pigmentation, but it
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Journal of the Lepidopterists* Society
can be seen through the black scales and is otherwise normal. The coloration of the body and of the appendages has remained unaffected.
There is a melanic P. thaws female labelled "Norwich, Mass./30 July 1955/leg. M. Cady" in the Peabody Museum at Yale, but in this specimen the wing markings have become completely blurred and smudged. On the dorsal side there is extensive fulvous at the wing bases with the rest of the wing surface black. Ventrally only two of the forewing black markings appear on a clear yellow ground, and the hind wing is cream with a large central brown patch. The two melanic specimens are very different in the way that the wing patterns have been affected, and they may be the result of quite different effects (for example, environmental us. genetic).
The Florida individual was the last to emerge in a brood of 158 individuals (87$ $, 61$ $ ), pupating and emerging several days after the last of its siblings. The melanism is thus correlated with a significant slowing in the rate of development, due probably either to a direct effect on the developmental rate or to a general lessening of vigor.
It is interesting to speculate on the possible inheritance of the form. The melanic was mated to a non-melanic sibling and produced a brood of about 40 adults, all of non-melanic appearance. Embryo mortality was high but normal for an Fi of a sibling mating in this species; larval and pupal mortality were negligible. If the melanic form is genetic in origin, it is probably recessive.
Charles G. Oliver, Hope Dept. of Entomology, Oxford University, Oxford, England.
A SPECIALIZED CASE OF COMMUNAL ROOSTING IN PIERIS RAPAE (PIERIDAE)
As a possible parallel to the report by Clench (1970, J. Lepid. Soc. 24: 117-120) it seems worthwhile to record my observations on a roosting aggregation of Pieris rapae (L.) in a garden at 2 Gulfview Rd., Blackwood, South Australia, in the foothills of the Mt. Lofty Range south of Adelaide, at an elevation of 800 feet. I lived at this address for five and one half years (1965-1970), during which time the following was observed.
P. rapae is abundant and multiple-brooded in this locality; the larvae feed upon a luxuriant patch of nasturtium (Tropaeolum) in the garden being described. Adults are on the wing from early spring (Sept.) to autumn (Apr.-May), reaching a peak during the summer period (late Nov. to early March). In this garden grows a small tree (height approximately 10 feet; shape roughly pyramidal; foliage cover fairly open) of Pittosporum undulatum Vent. var. variegatum (PITTOSPORACEAE). The important feature of this tree, with respect to the account that follows, is the coloration of its leaves. The leaves of this smaller-growing garden variety of P. undulatum are a pale greenish-white with contrasting white margins. The overall effect of the tree color is whitish-green; seen in the warm yellowish rays of late afternoon sunshine, just prior to sunset, these leaves light up with a faintly yellowish or cream-green tinge which is veiy close to the shade on the visible areas of the undersides of P. rapae wings when the butterflies are in their normal resting position with the wings closed over the dorsum. This P. undulatum tree was growing among other nearby trees, shrubs, and vines, but was in an opening where it received direct sun for most of the day. During sunny summer days, adults of P. rapae flew through this garden by the dozens, often five or more being visible at one time within the boundaries of the garden. Many of them would fly over and around this tree during the midday hours, even then showing somewhat more attraction to it than