696 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV11I. 



general scheme of all biological study forty years ago, although there are bound 

 to be a few old stagers who will persist in the contention that the names and 

 arrangement of classification, which has been good enough for them and those 

 before them for perhaps a century, must therefore be good enough still. At the 

 same time there is no possibility of denying the extreme inconvenience of such 

 sweeping changes as are now put forward in the classification of the Lepidoptera. 

 As an instance of this I will only mention that out of seventeen British species 

 of Sphingidce (Hawk Moths) twelve have been assigned new generic names in 

 Mr. South's book. If this is the case with British species how much more 

 apalling will be the changes we shall have before us in the Indian ? And if so 

 of the Sphingidce, how much more in the Geometridce '? We are already acquaint- 

 ed with instances of Indian moths having attained the proud distinction of 

 accumulating a series of as many as twenty different names, but much worse 

 than that would now appear to be before us. 



In Col. Bingham's Introduction to the first volume on Butterflies (Fauna of 

 British India) he alludes to Comstock's division of the Lepidoptera without 

 saying whether he accepts it or not for the order generally. So far as the 

 butterflies are concerned he accepts Meyrick's sub-order Papilionina (=Papi- 

 lionina + Hesperiina of Comstock) and from this one must presume he does 

 not agree entirely with the latter. 



My object in writing this note is not to carp at the revolution, but in the hope 

 that one of our members may see his way to help the generality of Indian 

 workers at the Lepidoptera with a brief account of the new classification and 

 of its principles, if it is going to be a permanency for the time being and not only 

 the crank of a faddisi. 



E. COMBER. 



Bombay, 26th March 1908. 



No. XXX.— CANNIBALISM IN CATERPILLARS. 



With reference tu Mr. C. E. C. Fischer's note on Cannibalism in Caterpillars 

 the last journal, the following facts may be of interest. 



Among Lepidoptera, Spalgis epius among Lycasnids, Eablemma amabilis, 

 E. cretacea, E. coccidiphaga and an undescribed species of Eublemma among 

 Noctuids, and Hypatima doleropa and H. pulverea among Tinoids habitually 

 feed upon Lac insects or upon Mealy bugs ( Dactylopius and allied genera). 

 These are not cases of cannibalism but of " flesh eating". Cannibalism is a 

 frequent feature of the more robust Noctuid larvae kept alive in the Pusa in- 

 sectary, even with sufficient food. In particular, the genera Agrotis and Enxea 

 Chloridea ( Heliothis ), Prodenia, Spodoptera, Caradrina and Cirphis (Leucania) 

 exhibit it ; with insufficient food, only one larva of a batch survives, but even with 

 sufficient food, mere contact is enough to provoke one caterpillar to take a bite 



