~ STORAGE. > JULY, 1920 24 fic S~ 1956 SpNTOMOLOGICAL NEWS Biologic gical * . Serials Vol XXXII. No. 7 FRR ANCH GEO YT, “BUIRTY ASA FITCH z 1809-1879 PHILIP P. CALVERT, Ph. D., Editor. E, T. CRESSON. Jr., Associate Editor. - HENRY SKINNER, M. D., Sc. D., Editor Emeritus. ADVISORY COMMITTEE : Ezra T. CRESSON, é J. A. G. REHN, PHILIP LAURENT, H. W. WENZEL. LANCASTER, PA., AnD PHILADELPHIA, PA. Entered at the Lancaster, Pa., Post-Office as Second Class Matter Acceptance for mailing at the special rate of postage provided in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July ro, rors. 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A: rx ftg~ The printer of the News will furnish reprints of articles over and above the twenty-five given. 2 : free at the following rates: One or two pages, twenty-five copies, 30 cents; three or four pages, twenty-five copies, 60 cents; five to eight pages, twenty-five copies, $1.20; nine to twelve pages, twenty-five copies, $1.80; each half-tone plate, twenty-five copies, 20 cents; each plate of line cuts, twenty-five copies, 15 cents; greater numbers of copies will be at the corresponding multiples of these rates. \ \\ Ent. News, VoLt. XXXI. Plate II. RICHARD H. STRETCH. ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS AN D PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. VoL. Bex! JULY, 1ro20: No.7. CONTENTS Coolidge and Newcomb—Richard H. Stretch—An Appreciation....... I8r Skinner—The Genus Choranthus Scud- der, with a Description of a New Editorial—Labels on Specimens....... 202 Prof. V. L. Kellogg to leave Stanford ntversitve nse fae or eae 203 Return of the Williamson—University SPEClESIUBMeD ree cides soc es ees 186 of Michigan Expedition from Ainslie—Notes on Gonatopus ombro- WENEZIElame icra tae mroc aos hee 203 des, a Parasite of Jassids (Hym., Entomological Literature............ 203 Higwe) 25 ueo2c 5 oe 187 Reviews—Howe’s Insect Behavior.... 206 Haber—Oviposition by a Cockroach, Howe’s Manual of the Odonata Periplaneta americana Linn. of New England............ 206 (Orth) eee. <. - BPP = te sa. as 190 Comstock’s, An Introduction to Green—Notes on American Rhynch- Entomolorye fence oo ee 208 OpnotatCOljeeraiiccs tcc... ss. 193 Patch’s Hexapod Stories......... 209 An Appreciation (Diptera) +f GA Seen 201 Obituary—H. S. Gorham, E. Reitter, Sad) butipamiliarsasrerias..-. <<... 201 Breeboudiere).cantelac cso. cc. 210 Richard H. Stretch---An Appreciation. By Karu R. Coouwce and H. H. NEWCOMB, Los Angeles, California. (Plate IT) There remain today but few of the pioneer lepidopterists who, mostly under great handicaps, laid the ground work for this study in America. Grote, Behr, Henry Edwards, Scudder, William H. Edwards and others have passed to the Great Beyond, leaving behind them writings and memories that will forever be monuments to their genius. An associate of these men, and himself the pioneer lepidopterist of the Pacific Coast, is Richard H. Stretch, who for some years has been living at 2657 37th Avenue, S. W., Seattle, Washington. As he has been wintering at Pasadena, California, we have been privileged to make his personal acquaintance, and from 181 182 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Ext we him we have gleaned the following facts of his life. And when but recently he remarked to us that he could hardly understand why any one should be interested in his life’s work, that—‘I have done so little’’-—we were amazed. But let us sketch briefly the busy career of this man, whose labors are still far from being ended. Richard H. Stretch was born November 25th, 1837, at Nantwich, England, five miles from the Crewe Station in Cheshire. His father died when he was eight years old, and two years later he was sent to a Quaker boarding school at Ackworth. At fourteen he attended the Friends’ School at York. Even in these early years he had an intense interest in Natural History, but especially insects. In 1853 he went to Banbury as an apprentice in a draper’s shop, remaining there until 1859. But this existence did not appeal to him (he states now that he had as much interest in dry goods as a fly) and the following year he held a position as cashier and book-keeper in a manufacturing company. In the winter of 1861 came an invitation to visit relatives in Illinois, and always eager to travel, and seeing an opportunity to study new forms of insect life, he quickly accepted this chance, soon leaving for Boston on the old Cunard side- wheeler ‘‘Canada,’’ the passage consuming twenty-one days. Reaching Boston, he proceeded to New York, and from there by steamer to Panama. There he did considerable collect- ing in all lines, and became acquainted with Dr. White, of the Panama Railroad Company, the pioneer coleopterist of Central America. Leaving Panama, he made New Orleans his next stop, remaining there several weeks sight-seeing and, as always, collecting. Thence to his uncle’s home, near Adrian, Illinois, where he remained about a month. Deciding to return to England, he made hurried visits to Philadelphia and Washington and then voyaged to Europe. The following year he devoted himself to architecture and building, but was dissatisfied with conditions and again came to the United States. He visited once more his uncle in Illinois, making considerable collections in all lines of biol- ogy. In 1863 he joined an emigrant party bound for Cali- fornia, and it was during this that a curious incident occurred. XX, 720] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 183 Mr. Stretch’s party consisted of but five, a very insufficient number in view of the numerous hostile Indian bands. But while other and larger emigrant groups were attacked, and in some cases, wiped out, this small party passed unmolested. At the outset of the journey one of Mr. Stretch’s collecting bottles, containing a various assortment of insects in alcohol, had rolled from one of the wagons unobserved. A friendly Indian had found and returned it. Mr. Stretch displayed his entomological wares to this red skin, who viewed them with intense interest, but not in a scientific way. And all along the line of the emigrant trail word was passed among the Indians that a Big Medicine Chief was coming, and appar- ently orders were given that no harm should befall him. Arriving at Salt Lake City, Mr. Stretch altered his plans and proceeded to Virginia City, then a rip-roaring frontier mining camp. First employed as a cook, he later ran a saw mill, and after that became associated with a Mr. Chapman in a land office business. Here again his entomological knowledge served him well, for his eye, trained in the discrimination of minute differences, also permitted him with ease to grade the various types of ore. And then, to his astonishment, he was elected state mineralogist of Nevada. He says now that it was with many misgivings that he undertook the duties required of this office, for his knowledge of mining was very scanty. But close observation and study overcame that, and eventually he became known as the best maker of mining maps in America. In 1867 he journeyed on to California, being among the earliest of the emigrants to cross the fearful Death Valley, meeting with Indians who had never before encountered white men. It was in this year that he introduced the method of making squares on maps, marked A. B. C. and 1, 2, 3, etc., now used the world over. He visited San Francisco, and also descended into Chihuahua, Mexico, to examine an old mine. Those were the days of hardships in travel, and Mr. Stretch recalls now, laughingly, one incident in particular when the food supply gave out, and he and the other members 184 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xXxxt 20 of his party were forced to subsist for two weeks on lizards and prickly pears. In the winter of 1868-69 he returned to Virginia City for the U. S. Geological Survey to‘make a study of the famous Comstock lode. His celebrated maps of this lode are to be found in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. But, with all his pressure of business, his interest in entomology never flagged, and many new and interesting species resulted from his Nevada stay. Returning to San Francisco, he spent the next few years in surveying, in 1870 becoming City Surveyor of San Francisco, Near Fresno, he sank the first artesian well in California, reaching a depth of 500 feet. He also put in the headgate of the first irrigation ditch in the state, this near Kingsbury. In 1874, Mr. Stretch paid a visit to his old home in England but returned to California in the following year, spending the next two years at Havilah, in Kern County. Here the dainty Philotes speciosa was discovered and named by Henry Edwards, as were a number of other butterflies taken at Havilah. In 1888 he removed to Seattle, Washington, and from there mining engagements took him to nearly every state in the west, as well as to British Columbia. He laid out West Seattle, was chief engineer of the Seattle and South- ern Railroad, and also, in later years, spent some time at Skaguay, Alaska, as engineer for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. In 1885 his wife, whom he had married at Virginia City, passed away and shortly after Mr. Stretch donated his entomological library, rich in valuable works, to the Me- chanic’s Institute in San Francisco. His magnificent col- lection, replete with many types and rarities, and numbering about thirteen thousand specimens, he gave to the Univer- sity of California, at Berkeley, California. Through all these busy years, Mr. Stretch kept up a world- wide correspondence with entomologists. He was elected a member of the California Academy of Sciences and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. A constant contributor on entomological subjects, his many papers are eT) (20] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 185 to be found in Papilio, Canadian Entomologist, Entomolo- gica Americana and other journals. He was called, while at San Francisco, to investigate the Cottony Cushion Scale, then present in but one spot in California, at San Mateo, and his exhaustive report of this was published by the California Academy of Sciences. In a recent letter Mr. Stretch writes concerning the warning note he gave in this paper: ‘This warning was utterly disregarded, when if appreciated it would have saved millions, as I pointed out what might be the result of inaction to prevent spread.”’ Though Mr. Stretch knew the butterflies and collected many new species, his greatest interest was in the moths, and his ‘Illustrations of the Zygaenidae and Bombycidae of North America,” published in 1872 and 1873, will remain as a classic of those groups. He knew intimately not only the other early entomol- ogists of the west, but many other men of note. Edison he visited when that genius was at work on the first phono- graph. He was well acquainted with Mark Twain, and recalls with mirth the celebrated lecture by the famous humorist upon his return from the Hawaiian Islands—in which not one word was uttered of the islands he had just visited, the announced subject of the lecture. But Henry Edwards was Mr. Stretch’s closest friend and companion, and when, in the early nineties that perfect gentleman passed on, Mr. Stretch’s active entomological studies practically came to an end. At the present time, at the age of eighty-two, he is engaged upon a mining hand book. A former treatise of the same subject is still the standard in many universities. And yet, with so much accomplished, Mr. Stretch con- fesses that his ONE GREAT AMBITION was never realized—to collect tropical butterflies. ‘‘Ah, the dreams of youth de- parted’”’ he said regretfully as he looked upon some gay exotics, but we are not so sure—it would not surprise us at all should we learn that Mr. Stretch had gone to the tropics to perch in tree tops, and as he had once hoped to do, to shoot with a blow pipe the gorgeous Morphos! b] 186 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xxx, “20 The Genus Choranthus Scudder, with a Des- cription of a New Species (Lepidoptera.) By HENRY SKINNER. This genus was proposed by Dr. Scudder in the Annual Reports of the Peabody Academy of Science, 1871, p. 79. The genus was not described. The type cited was Hesperia radians Lefebv. in Sagra Hist. L’Ile de Cuba, 1857, p. 650. Watson in his ‘‘A Proposed Classification of the Hesperidae,”’ Proc. Zoological Soc. Lond., 1893, p. 130, did not know the genus. Mabille in the Genera Insectorum (Hesperidae), 1904, does not mention either the genus or species. The original description of radians is not very good but there is no doubt about the species intended. A description of the species will probably be useful as the genus and species have been confused with the genus Aérytone Scudder and its species. Choranthus radians. o’.—Expanse (one wing) 14 mm. General color of wings, body and legs, above and below, fulvous. Antennae fuscous above and on the under- side of the ends of the club; inner half of the club below, fulvous; under- side of the shaft annulated. Palpi above fulvous, mixed with black, below tawny. There isa patch of yellow hairs at the base of the antennae. Upperside. The primaries have a v-shaped black line at the end of the discoidal cell. The stigma is a narrow black line 4.5 mm. in length, the upper end pointing toward the apex of the wing and the lower end resting on the submedian nervure. A fuscous border 4 mm. wide on the costa and 2.5 mm. wide at the middle. The fulvous of the wing extends into the border finely dentate. The secondaries have the same fuscous border, 2.5 mm. wide on the costa and I mm. wide on the outer and inner margins. Underside. Primaries: The base, except on the costa, fuscous. Mar- ginal band as above, but olive green, with the nervures extending into it as rays. Inner margin olive green. Secondaries olive green with the nervures fulvous, except the space between two of the median nervures, which is fulvous. The female is marked like the male but it lacks the sex brand and it is a little larger. The species is found in Cuba and I collected some speci- mens of it during the month of February near Guantanamo. I described the species as streckeri in Ent. News, 1893, IV, XXXI, ’20| ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 187 211, the specimen having been said to be from Florida. See Bat. News, 1917, XXVIII, 82. Dr. F. D. Godman, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1907, XX, 144, cites magica Ploetz, as a synonym of radians. Choranthus haitensis n. sp. The description of radians will answer for this species. It differs as follows. Upperside: Primaries: Nervures black, the fulvous not: den- tateintothefuscous border. Secondaries: Fuscousborderentire. Under- side. Primaries entirely fulvous, excepting the base and the border of the inner margin. Secondaries entirely fulvous. Described from a number of specimens from Haiti and San Domingo. The only definite localities are Samana Bay, San Domingo, (Dr. W. L. Abbott) and the type male from Port deveare tian, VII, 27, 1917, (Dr. W. L. Abbott) and a fe- male with the same data. The sex mark distinguishes these two species from any Pamphilinae known to me. TJ ype in the collection of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Notes on Gonatopus ombrodes, a Parasite of Jassids (Hymen., Homop.) By C. N. Arnsiiz, U. S. Bureau of Entomology. (Continued from page 173). It may be worth while to note here that the body of the larva after emergence is so much greater in bulk than the capacity of the sac that it is plainly evident it must occupy much of the abdominal chamber of the jassid, using the sac possibly as a spare room into which to expand as growth adds to the volume of the body. THE COCOON When ready to construct the cocoon, and this usually follows closely on emergence, the larva seems best satisfied to select the groove of a curled grass blade or even to locate on a flat blade, and there, with its body parallel to the axis of the leaf it makes its cocoon. The silk of which the cocoon 188 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xxoer 20 is fashioned is of such very fine texture that a single thread is almost invisible except when placed in a strong light. When the larva leaves its host it sometimes spins a few threads as it moves away, but these are meaningless and are soon abandoned. After more or less travelling about, in captivity, a location for the cocoon is decided upon and a first move made by fastening a few delicate threads in front of the head. The silk issues from a spinneret near themouth. By swinging the head backwards and sideways, points of con- tact for more threads are secured and soon a filmy fabric or awning begins to envelop the larva. Hour after hour the spinning progresses on the inside of the chamber without a minute’s delay as if the naked helpless larva were making frantic efforts to clothe itself as soon as possible. The spinner reverses ends within the cocoon whenever necessary to distribute the silk properly. When complete the cocoon is quite dense, nearly or quite opaque and is snow white. It measures, over all, about 6 millimeters long and 1 milli- meter broad at the widest part. The cell proper that con- tains the larva and afterwards the pupa is only 4 millimeters in length. On each end of this is a sloping addition more transparent than the main structure, a tapering web, the entire affair somewhat resembling an inverted hammock in shape. These cocoons are not difficult to find in the open since they are very white and are usually placed prominently near the tips of grass blades in plain sight, on the upper side of the leaf. Occasionally they are found attached to stems of grasses or among the vegetable rubbish near the ground. On one occasion an ombrodes larva emerged in captivity and locating on a, grass blade spun for itself a very fine, nearly transparent screen of silk. Two very minute ants that happened to have been introduced into the cage with some earth were seen feeding upon this silk fabric and they nearly denuded the larva before they could be driven off. The larva did not mature but gradually dried up without moving. The adult emerges through an irregular opening that is chewed in one end of the cocoon.