74 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



secured, and this includes Arg. Atlantis (Can. Ent., vii., p. 35, 1875) 

 and Myrim (id. viii., p. 162, 1876), eggs have been laid within a few- 

 hours after. Mr. Siewers, at Newport, Ky., had twice observed pairs of 

 Cybele in same condition in early summer. Eggs laid 15th June would 

 allow about two months for the several stages to imago. 



Note. — I received recently a letter from an active collector and breeder 

 of butterflies, in which he says : "I would like to ask you why you call 

 the segment back of the head, in your descriptions of larvae, the second 

 segment. Other authors, without a single exception, so far as I know, call 

 it the first segment. By your calling it the second and numbering the 

 other segments in accordance, your descriptions are apt to be misleading 

 to those who are used to the descriptions of other authors." 



This led me to look up the authorities and see if I was so unorthodox 

 as my correspondent supposed. And first I examined Burmeister, Manual 

 of Entomology, translated by Shuckard, London, 1836, a book to which 

 I always go for directions and advice in things entomological. It is 

 unnecessary to say that this author is facile pr'uicepes in his department. 

 And on page 35, section 53, I read : " All larvae with a perfect metamor- 

 phosis have a long, generally cylindrical body, composed of 13 more or 

 less distinct rings or segments." " The head always occupies the first of 

 the 13 segments." Next Westwood, whose Introduction, London, 1840, 

 should be in the library of every working entomologist : " The larvae (of 

 lepidoptera) are long and cylindrical, composed of 13 segments, of which 

 the anterior represents the head of the imago," vol. 2, page 319. West- 

 wood in 1838, in his Entomologist's Text Book, London, page 397, has 

 said : " They (the caterpillars) are composed of 13 rings, of which the 

 first represents the head." 



Looking over the larval descriptions in back volumes of the Ento- 

 mologist's Monthly Magazine, the organ of the Ent. Soc. of London, I 

 find all the writers, including such veterans in this branch as Gosse, 

 Buckler and others, speak of the segments as 13, and count the head as 

 number one. It would seem to be the rule with English entomologists. 

 It is true Dr. Boisduval makes but 12 segments, not counting the head, 

 but I apprehend the weight of authority is on the other side. It certainly 

 is best that there should be uniformity in such a matter, if for no other 

 reason, to prevent confusion such as my correspondent speaks of, and I 

 think we cannot do better than to adopt the method of the German Bur- 

 meister, and our English brethren. 



