The Lepidopterists' News THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE LEPIDOPTERISTS' SOCIETY P. O. Box 104, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts • Edited by C. L. REMINGTON and H. K. CLENCH Vol. I, No. 6 October, 1947 THE ANNUAL MEMBE.RSHIP I,IST Accompanying this iSSU'3 of tho KEWS :U3 tha l~st of- members of the Society, giving addresses ano. Sy3 ~i8 . :i. jniie!,8 · :;:;S,~ 'J.'l:e p'lrpose of issu­ ing the list now instaad of :Oecc-.rr.he:c is to malce it available for maxi­ mum use during the ex~nanging sea,:wn" The preparation of this l::"st per-mi+;;:3 a.n analysis of the growtl1 of the Society during its six months ,:,f ~X~_8tencB '~ ..\ total of 199 indi vi­ duals or institutions now r'e'.::.uiv3 the U8W~~ . , Of the~'eo 19:,- are regular members of the Soc iety anc. the othe::> 8 ("~~b libr8'C'~;_B<J or orga~izat ions. 169 members are from th./-)· TT :,·,S u.!I... >A: a::':7 from CP!:~.0..&. 8.l!.d 8 <:i;.>e from countries out,side ()t ::\0: " :~h I\ . rnj.'~ '.::. ,). ,_ rr:'1.i9 y '~aT.> ':''-1. ':;1'0 8 p.re all recip­ ients of gif",::; s~J.b"'J~:";; . r+;:;.'Jns from l1:'ie:-...ds in -'-:·lJ.B U·) S ,; [i." , B.Ld U:. view of the dollar shortagr)3 ill Eurd.sJ.8.r. Cf")l:r.tl'ies we hope .,,8r.:r r.lOrs .i).merica.n members will make availab:!_ 8 ."ll~C.Q Aubscriptions in tl:e at:lprlJaching year. A survey of the di.f;f;:r·r,,:mt iO:"1 of the North IUn~rl~d.n members indi-­ cates the regions in wn~ . >. '. b :~:h0 8od.l'lty needs much bette~,:, repr9sentation. The east and west ,c08 3t·~ 8a("~!:~ r:ra \T:~<..-.a I:l number cf: mp,r;.~be:,.">~ $ but there are surprisingly faw f~o~ G~~ uent~al s~J~e3 and ~he Joutheasto It is not reasonable thaI, t]:;.3:" 5 1'.1.:':'>7 n,::; X>o:0:I'a:.;ev'tac:.vos 0:C sueD well"'popu1ated central stateB 8.S ':lI':.J.lnc-jFi:lt."I." :CU1JIl3.. I\Tsb ::·(;.. :=:k 9.~ lnd:i.ana ... Wes:; Virginia, and Oklahoma , e.nd r.'.Jr.S -;"l'nm 'SrJ'! l)~k()ta .'3~ Ar1:<:8.r:.sas t C,!' Louisiana" We hope during the neXl~ Y':J,J.r Vie W:1 ~L.l. f-~~.BD~~:I,;:;.d· many new members from the uDeep South" 'l SO'-ltll ::;,'0:0] :lr,,'3.. a:~d l<Labana ':;c"o not rep:re~'!6nted ,at all, and there are certaJnly many m.:;.re Lbp:1.doptei"ists in Florid9. and other southern states ,_ In 8dctJ.ti.on to the 12 :::itate::; mention.ed above. the So­ ciety still lacks De:J..a . va~:,e, Mor.tana;l Idaho: New MGxico 1 :r-.Tevada~ and A.,. laska. Canada is also very peorly representeds 'with only 14 members, none in British Columbia, Alberta, or New Brunswick, among the non-Arc- tic provinces c . A gratifyingly large number of members responded to the request for names of Lepidopterists, when they filled out the membership slips. From these names has come a large part of the Society's membersQ Now we are asking you to continue to try to j.ncrease th& . Society rolls in the f'ollowing way~ Look through the List of' Members and note whi~h ot your correspondents bave not yet j~in9d the SOCiety? Then jot their names and addresses on a pascal card ::.r letter and mail them to us a.s soon as conv,,:mi6n~ , A )UAntj')n af the .3ociety and -che NEY.'S in your let ... ters to these cor .."c,q;oL1c1vLts will also help., This is your Sae-icty end --3 nlarging t~e ~e'TJr: ' . j: 5rd.j) \idll :r:S 9.::1, an il11rrcvemer.. t. in tho W.rl:Vm a.nd (other Soc:tety act:Lviti<"l':; :-;:illCA t h",re will be more ind.i7iduals sharing the costs and contrlo~~~g MP~erial. (cont. on p,,62) The Annual Membership List (continued) Members will be interested to know that arrangements are being con­ sidered which will produce the Nm1S by a clearer ~nd more satisfactory process than mimeographing. Regular printing would raise the cost (and your dues) considerably, so this will not, be used. We feel that it 1s important to keep the dues as low as possible. Nevertheless ,any repro­ ducing process other than mimeographing will be more expensive. So it you are interested enough to keep the ~VS at its present size with a smal,l inyrease or no increase in dUes, we hope that all of you will give wholehearted support to a drive to double the membership for 1948. Some of you have already been enthusiastic in helping us reach more interested people. J.W.Adams asked for a number of extra member­ ship slips and letter's and ,personally saw to i'l;; .that several new mem­ bers were added. Lloyd M. Martin is responsible for our having such a large list for California,. A.K. Wyatt and several others have made special efforts. Don Eff knew that we needed to have Wyoming and some other states represented so he saw to it that we got a Wyoming member. We know that many others of you will respond similarly now th~t you are aware of th.e need of increased membership. ' "Such facts (as of finding from breeding experiments that differ­ ent colored "species" were actually one species)* ought to give impetus to the rearing of insects,; for though the artificial method of making species out of every little individual variation, may be very amusing to those who choose to indulge in it; yet such work will never give us a natural system, and much of it will have to be undone by subsequent in­ vestigators who acquaint themselves with the adolescent as well as the . perfect- i'.orms of a s-pe-ei.e.s .• " ,_ C. V. 'Riley, in Canadian *Parenthetical words ours--Ed. Entomologist, 1871. ------~----~-~------~---~-~------------------~--------~-----~--------~~ LIVING PUPAE AVAILABLE We are delighted to announce the following two responses to the editorial on offering live pupae in the August NEWS (see also the Schroeter notice on p. 71): ' p1atys~ cecropia cocoons - lO¢ each P. cecrop!! X f. rubra hybrids cocoons - l5¢ each Aut orner is io cocoons , - 15¢ each or exchanged for papered specimens to add to my collection. E.A. Ferguson, 1213 Bellflower Ave •• S.W., canton 4; Ohio. 92 living chrysalids of Papilio troilus (from Michigan) to trade with other Lep. Soc. members for either moths or butterflies, preferably cocoons or chrysalids. The Hynes Family, 152 Meachem Ave., Battle Creek, Michigan. Western Lepido,pterists, in particular. can insur'e great pleasure for themselves and fam1liesnext spring by having emerge the eastern species they normally see only as dead specimens. What about some wes­ terners offering living pupae? -62 .. BOOK REVMIS 6. The Lepidoptera ~f New York and Neighborin-g states, Primitive Forms, Micro ' '':LE~pidoptera, Pyraloids ' and Bombyces .. * by William T. M. Forbes This is the handbook and reference work for most workers on the mlcro-Iepidoptera of the northeastern states. An extraordinary am­ ount of information has been assembled on their technical characters, early stages, btology, food and distributione Keys to families, gen­ era and species and 439 figures of important characters make this work constantly valuable to the professional and amateur alike. Dr. Forbes has endeavored to make this treatise usable throughout by the general student of moths. The most apparent characters have been regularly used in the keys and descripttons, but of course a micro­ scope is necessary for many details of work on the micros. Pages 7-33, introducing the book,. contain the author's careful­ ly-reached viewpoints on several subjects, such as taxonomy, varia­ tion (with numerous examples of types of subspecific variation), phy­ logeny, distribution, and structure. These, viewpoints have stood the test of nearly thirty years, most being perfectly valid in the light of much newer studies. Forbes' species is: "A group of indivi ... duals separated from all others by tangible characters, breeding freely among themselves, but not with othe~ individuals." A separate key to the females of the Eucosminae is given. Lar­ val and pupal keys to the families and notes on many larvae are in­ cluded, with some information on the habits .and general distribut ion. Finally there is a food plant list enumerati the species feedi~ on eacli plant. For the genera 1tnocoIle~is an Gracilar a tne an· dition of synopses of the food plants offers the easiest means of· identification in these difficult genera. The sections ·dealing with the Nepticulidae and Lithocolletis were prepared by Annette F. Braun and the genus Coleophora by Carl Heinrich. Shortcomings in this work are apparent throughout to the speci­ alist. The most important can be said to be due to a lack of knowl­ edge at the time Forbes wrote. The magnitude of the field to be covered, the difficulty of classifying many of the genera, and the lack of any knowledge concerning the early stages of many species make impossible a complete manual. One could wish that for the sake of convenience Forbes had followed more closely the check lists of American Lepidoptera. Some keys need to be corrected more closely. In the Phycitinae and some other groups the number of species to be found in the Northeast which were omitted makes the treatment of these groups unsatisfactory.