302 JOURNAL OF THE LEPIDOPTERISTS' SOCIETY

LITERATURE CITED COMSTOCK, W. P. 1961. Butterflies of the American Tropics, the Genus Anaea, (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., N.Y. p. 30. CRAMER, P. 1777. Papillons exotiques des trois parties du Monde: L'Asie, L'Mrique et L'Amerique. Amsterdam. Vol. 2, p. 34. FRUHSTORFER, H. 1909. Entomol. Zeitschr. Stuttgart. Vol. 23, p. 166. JANZEN, D. H. & T. W. SCHOENER. 1968. Differences in insect abundance and diversity between wetter and drier sites during a tropical dry season. Ecology 49: 96-110. HARRISON, J. O. 1963. On the biology of three banana pests in Costa Rica. ( Lepidoptera: Limacodidae, Nymphalidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 56: 87-92. MULLER, W. 1886. Zoo!. Jahrb. Zeitschr. Syst. Geogr. Biolog. der Tiere, Jena. Vo!' 1, p. 497. MUYSHONDT, A. 1973. Notes on the life cycle and natural history of butterflies of El Salvador. I. Prepona omphale octavia (Nymphalidae). J. Lepid. Soc. 27: 210-219. SEPP, J. 1928. Surinaamische Vlinders. Amsterdam Vo!' 1, p. 9. WESTWOOD, J. O. 1850. The genera of diurnal Lepidoptera. London. Vo!' 2, p. 321.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON DRYAS IULIA IULIA (HELICONIIDAE) Dryas iulia iulia (Fabricius) is a common species in El Salvador and is found flying in wide open territory or under low vegetation from sea level to about 2000 m. Both sexes are assiduous visitors of flowers. The females lay eggs individually (pers. obs.) on tender terminals of various species of wild Passifloraceae vines. My sons and I have reared D. i. iulia many times from egg to adulthood, the process taking about one month. We have not found any case of parasitism yet. Males are bright orange dorsally, while the females are a dull orange dorsally. Both sexes have black margins on both wings and a black subapical band. When handled, males extrude a double gland under the genitalia, and females a semicircular one above the genitalia. Due to the interference of these glands, we have been unable to obtain hand pairing with this species. Both sexes produce a punget scent when disturbed. Many times we have witnessed nuptial flights, and always the male has been the active flyer, the female hanging limp. On 14 August 1971, shortly before noon, a pair consisting of a fresh male and an old and damaged female was observed in copula on a low shrub. When disturbed with the handle of a net, the male took flight with the female hanging motionless. They alighted some 20 m away in low vegetation. Three times we forced the pair to move, and every time the same thing happened. The pair was then netted and brought home, still in copula, in a plastic bag. Next day, the female was put in the bag on a Passiflora sp. vine and was left there until the morning of the 17th, when it was killed and dissected. It had laid 37 eggs on the vine, and no eggs were found in the abdomen. On 5 October 1972, another pair was observed copulating. This time both the male and female were recently emerged. They were found at 0920 on the vine where they had been reared. While being observed from some distance, the male took flight, carrying the passive female, and alighted some 10 m away at 6 m above the ground on a white wall, where the pair was very conspicuous. They stayed motionless, male above, for one hour, until forced to fly into a wire cage. They then stayed on the side of the cage, male above, without further movement until copula­ tion was ended at 1455. At that time both butterflies started flying in the cage trying to escape. Again, the female was put in a plastic bag on the vine for two VOLUME 27, NUMBER 4 303 days. Then it was killed and dissected. One egg had been deposited on the vine, and four were found in the abdomen. The vertically oriented eggs are yellow, about 1.5 mm long by 1 mm wide, covered by a reddish coating, and with ribs and sculpturings somewhat resembling Danaidae eggs. They hatch in four days. First instar larvae, about 2 mm long, are yellowish, head and body. At this stage the head shows no markings or spines, but has some scarce fine setae. The body has no markings or spines either, but each segment has a transverse row of fine, dark setae. From the second instar, on the head shows white and reddish markings and two spines, one on each epicranium. The body is covered by rows of spines and shows white and reddish markings, such as described in great detail by Richard (1968, J. Lepid. Soc. 22: 75-76) for Dryas iulia delia (Fabricius). The larva of D. i. iulia, upon emerging from the egg, eats the egg-shell, at least partially, and then moves to the edge of the leaf where it starts feeding. It leaves small hanging sections of the leaf that soon wilt and dry, forming an excellent camouflage. The first, second and sometimes third instar larvae are easily located by examining the leaves that show these ragged edges. Larger larvae move about the vine and can cause a mild rash on the skin when touched with the back of the hand. It is interesting to note that in the two cases of copulation we are reporting, the young female laid only one egg and had four in the abdomen, whereas the old and damaged female laid 37 eggs and had none left in the abdomen. The females prob­ ably copulate several times during their life span and lay considerably more than 30 eggs, contrary to Labine's suggestion (1968, in Young 1972, Acta BioI. Venez. 8: 1-7) that most species of Heliconiinae probably lay less than 30 eggs during the average females lifetime. Another species that tends to contradict Labine's sugges­ tion is Dione iuno huascama Reakirt, whose female often lays groups of over 100 eggs during a single sitting (pers. obs.). This is the only heliconiid with gregarious habits all through its developmental stages that we have found in El Salvador. As seen in the description above, in D. iulia iulia the male is the active flying partner. In most of the reports on butterfly copulation we have found, (Pronin 1964, J. Lepid. Soc. 18: 35-41; Ferris 1969, J. Lepid. Soc. 23: 271-272; Carcason 1970, J. Lepid. Soc. 24: 72; Jae 1972, J. Lepid. Soc. 26: 28; Priestaf 1972, J. Lepid Soc. 26: 104), the active partner usually has been the female. A final comment: the description by Richard (1968, op. cit.) of the early stages of Dryas i. delia matches exactly the early stages of Dryas i. iulia, except for the first instar and the fact that we have always found five larval stages instead of four. We suspect that the larvae he collected and thought were first instar were actually second instar larvae.

ALBERTO MUYSHONDT, 101 Avenida Norte #322, Lomas Verdes, San Salvador, El Salvador.

NEW MEXICAN SPHINGIDAE RECORDS Since Hoffmann's catalogue of Mexican sphingids (1942, An. Inst. BioI. Univ. Nal. Auton. Mexico 13: 213-256), few species have been added. Some of them like Phryxus caicus Cram. and Callionima nomius Wlk. were recorded in 1967 (Beutel­ spacher & Vazquez 1967, An. Inst. BioI. Univ. Nal. Auton. Mexico 38, Ser. Zool. (1): 75-77). Hoffmann's catalogue, however, requires numerous generic changes which we will be making soon, based on Hodges (in Dominick et aI., 1971, Moths of America North of Mexico, fasc. 21, Sphingoidea). Thanks to Mr. Roberto de la Maza and his sons, we are learning of more new species for Mexico, and at this time can add two new genera; one of Neotropical, and the other of Palearctic origin.