F. X. Williams.
The Pupa of Boreus brumalis Fitch.
Psyche 23(2):36-39, 1916.

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36 Psyche [April
oblong with the sides slightly convex and the corners somewhat rounded, also slightly wider distad.
First legs of male enlarged in the usual degree but longer than usual. The penult article exceptionally long, becoming distally much more slender than the preceding article. Anterior division of the first gonopods conspicuously clavate; the broad distal end bent caudad, the caudal edge setiegerous; posterior division much longer than the anterior, its base broad but above this narrowing rather abruptly to a blade which curves ventromesad nearly to the middle line, with the ~osterior angle of the tip extended caudad in a short, slender and very acute process.
The posterior gonopods are broad plates each of which curves first cephaloventrad and then ventrocaudad, the distal portion of the blade narrower but still conspicuously broader than usual, the blade with its broad surface subvertical; the distal end charac- teristically bifid, the two lobes or teeth short. The types are broken and as a result the number of segments cannot be accurately determined.
Two broken males form the basis of the description. In the character of the anterior gonopods this species suggests P. zakiwanus Chamberlin, known from New Mexico, but the pos- terior gonopods are conspicuously different. THE PUPA OF BOREUS BRUMALIS FITCH.
BY FRANCIS X. WILLIAMS,
Melrose Highlands, Mass.
In the August number of PSYCHE Dohanian describes and figures Boreua brumalis1 and states that the life-history has not been fully worked out in any species of the genus. The order to which this insect belongs, the Panorpatse, comprises a small group of neuropteroid forms, among which are the genera Panorpa, commonly known as scorpion-flies, Bittacus and Merope, and whose mouth-parts are borne at the end of a snout-like extension of the 1 Notes on the External Anatomy of Boreus brumalis Fitch, PSYCHE, XXII, pp. 120-123, pl. IX, 1915.
Ps\che 23:36-38 ( 1916). hup //psyche einclub org/23/23-036 html



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19161 Williams-The Pupa of Boreus Brumalis Fitch 37 head, or rostrum.
In general, their lif e-history is imperfectly known, but the larvae are said to be terrestrial and carnivorous. On October 4,1915,I had the good fortune to unearth a number of Boreus pupae at Andover, Mass., some fifteen miles north of Boston. Others were found in this locality up to October 22, and in two separate localities at Melrose Highlands, the first pupa being taken October 6 and the last on November 23. All were
found in neat and rather elongate earthen cells in or just beneath the fine root-work of green moss
which was growing at the base of
trees, chiefly oaks. At the base
of one tree I soon found over a
dozen. The pupal cells were ver-
tical or inclined and extended to
within one half of an inch or so
of the surface of the soil. No
pupae could be found under moss
other than that which grew at the
base of trees.
The pupa is of the same general
shape and size (3.2-3.75 mm.) as
the adult. The appendages are
free. The mandibles are rather
large and 4-dentate and vary
somewhat in my three specimens
(1 c? and 2 Q ). The male has two
pairs of long, narrow wingcases
and the female a single short pair.
The male genitalia are terminal
and somewhat reflexed and in well
advanced pupae exhibit a stout up-
turned pair of chitinous clasping
organs which are strongly toothed
on their concave border. In the
Fig. 1. Boreus brumalis, pupa.
female the abdomen terminates in a more or less conical point, which encloses the inner portion of the ovipositor, while the outer blades of the ovipositor are ensheathed in a pair of ventrally appressed appendages that arise from the eighth abdominal segment and do not quite extend to the end of the body. The coxae are long and



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38 Psyche [April
stout and probably assist the adult in leaping. There are a few rather long bristles, as shown in the figure, and a short transverse row of little thorns on either side of the mid-dorsal line on abdomi- nal segments 2-5. Under good magnification the surface of the body is finely pointed-granulate. The pupa is at first whitish; but even in the first specimens secured the eyes and mandibles had become quite dark. In well matured examples the body was brownish or greenish yellow and the longer appendages, at first rather closely appressed to the body, showed a tendency to move out of position.
The pupa is easily disturbed and is then decidedly active. The
head is moved up and down in a vigorous manner, the mandibles open and shut and the abdomen is twisted around. These move- ments parallel rather closely those made by the pupa of the Erio- cranid moths (Jugatse) in working their way to the surface of the soil, and it is possible that the movements of the Boreus pupa serve the same purpose. Busck and Boving say the following concern- ing this Eriocranid pupa, p. 155-6 : " While all the other appen- dages are loose, not glued together as is normal in a Lepidopterous pupa, it is mainly the head and the mandibles and abdominal segments, which are movable and utilized in locomotion, when the pupa digs up through the earth." In Boreus the pupal mandibles are about as long as two thirds the distance from their base to the lower portion of the eyes, 4-dentate and several times the size of the small %dentate mandibles of the adult insect. Unfortunately almost all my pup= were destroyed by a fungus, so that I was unable to rear more than a single brumalis. Towards the end of November, the pupse had become very scarce, though what I took to be deserted open pupal chambers were not un- common locally. With diligent search, however, I managed to find a single, well advanced pupa on November 22, and this, seven or eight hours later, disclosed a fully or nearly fully pig- mented and active male bruds. This insect lived for fifteen days confined in a jelly tumbler half-filled with damp moss. It always kept to the higher places and walked about in leisurely fashion, its metallic blackish head glistening in the light. It contrived to escape once, when it traveled by well-directed six- inch hops.
4 On Mnemonica auricyanae Walshingham, Proc Ent. Soc., Wash., XVI, pp. 151-162, pi. IX-XVI, 1914.




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