THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 109^ 



All nomenclature is but a means to the end of increasing our know- 

 ledge of the organisms themselves, and for this, unchangeability of names 

 is the first requisite. Whatever the strict law of priority theoretically 

 should accomplish, we have seen but the beginning of the permanent 

 confusion in which its practice results, and which its continuance as the 

 fundamental law will hand down to the remotest generation ; each inexact 

 description, as published, adding new material to increase the complexity 

 of the tangled web of names. 



NOTES ON HYPERCHIRIA 10 (Fabr.) 



BY C. V. RILEY, ST. LOUIS, MO. 



I have obtained many egg-masses of this species the present season 

 and have had them deposited by moths reared in confinement. Even in 

 a state of nature they are deposited quite irregularly, some fastened on 

 one of the compressed sides, some piled on top of others, but most of 

 them on the small end as in the closely allied Mala. The average length 

 is 0.07, largest width 0.05, and greatest thickness 0.03 inch. They are 

 compressed on two sides, and flattened at the apex, the attached end 

 smallest. When first deposited they are pure cream color, with a trans- 

 lucent yellow spot on the flattened apex. Toward maturity the colour 

 changes to a more intense white with a faint lilaceous tint ; the yellow 

 spot at apex becomes mostly black and the compressed sides are more or 

 less translucent, especially the upper half, through which the yellow of the 

 enclosed larva and some of the darker spines may easily be seen just 

 before the hatching period. Mr. Lintner's description as " elliptical, 

 somewhat flattened," and Air. Minot's "top-shaped" are neither, strictly 

 true, and would hardly enable one to distinguish this egg from many 

 others ; while my own description is not as ample as it should be. Hence 

 these notes. The larval changes are given in my 5th Report (p. 135.) 

 The spines of the larva in the first stage are too weak and pliant to enter 

 the most tender skin ; and the urticating property is only ascertainable 

 after the first moult. 



