MISCELLANEOUS. 421 



extreme caution, backed a few paces. This operation was repeated several 

 times on one side, and then the fly ,went to the. other, making a wide detour 

 round the caterpill 1. This seem; me curious reflections. I 



have long believed that the mimicries and other protective d so common 



erpillars are not designed for protection against bi 

 ;ist their arch enemy, the parasite, dipterous or hymenopterous, but it 

 never struck me before that the lateral fringe of spines, bristles winch 



we find in Euthalia among butterflies, and in many g among moths, was 



meant to guard the soft underparts, to which apparently the egg must be 

 attached. If this be so, then we must suppose that a keen evolutionary race 

 is going on now between the growth of the larva's hair and the parasite's 

 positor. They were pretty evenly matched in the instance I have quoted, 

 and the fly had no easy task, which may account for what at first puzzled me, 

 the cat-like caution of the fly. The caterpillar could not hurt it, but might, if 

 alarmed, have frustrated its purpose, either by erecting the tufts of hair, or 

 simply by mowing. 



E. H. AITKEX. 

 Karwar, November, 1890. 



VII.— DISSEMINATION OF LARVJE. 



Some time ago I got a large pupa, and throwing it into a cage of gauze, 

 forgot it. One morning my attention was attracted by a cloud of small mollis 

 fluttering round the cage, and on looking in I found that a great apterous 

 female moth had emerged from my pupa. I let in one or two of the males 

 and the rest very soon dispersed. Next day the female produced almost her 

 own weight of eggs, and then, shrivelling up like ' ' She'" after her second immer- 

 sion in the flame of life, died. In a few days a swarm of caterpillars appeared 

 clothed with hair so long that the wind blew them about as easily as the seeds 

 of a thistle. They did not, however, trust themselves altogether to the mercy 

 of the wind, but, attached very fine lines of silk to the cage, on which they 

 floated away like gossamer spiders, or to use a more homely simile, paper kites. 

 The silk readily caught the posts of the verandah, or branches o 

 in a short time, there was a network of fine lines, extending eight or ten ya 

 to leeward, with caterpillars crawling along them in all directions, or letting 

 themselves be blown from one to another. The resemblance of the wl 

 thing to the dispersion of plumed suds was very striking, and in view oi 

 fact that many moth npt to seek their food pi nit lmr i 



eggs just where they chance to be, the incident - 

 for investigation. 



TEEN. 

 Kdntwar, November, 1890. 



