Studies on Life-history of Bomhycine Moths. 91 



and long. The sides of the body are dark; the body itself in 

 general dark blackish-brown. 



In another and fresher specimen there is a bright yellow spiracular 

 line, somewhat broken by the deep transverse wrinkles of the seg-. 

 ments, while the entire under side, including the middle abdominal 

 legs, is greenish-yellow. 



In my Keport on Forest Insects (1890) Fig. 39, by an unfortu- 

 nate mistake, owing to lack of lettering, I copied Stretch's figure of 

 Levcarctia acrsea instead of his figure of Phryganidia. lam still in- 

 clined to follow Stretch in placing this moth in the Zygaenidge ; though 

 it should be, as Butler claimed, associated with the "Dioptidie." 

 The larva of Phryganidia is smooth and huaiped, and thus very 

 near the Agari.stidfe, and quite unlike those of the Zygsenidse, which 

 are hairy; but the characters of the moth are like those of the 

 Dioptidae, of whose transformations nothing, I believe, is known. 



As regards its venation, Phryganidia comes very near Gnophatla 

 vermiculata ; the number of subcostal branches of the fore wing is 

 six (in Ctenucha five), but there is an independent vein, not present 

 in Gnophfela. The median vein of Phryganidia differs in that the 

 1st and 2d branches arise at some distance from the discal vein. 



In the hind wings the venation of Phryganidia is nearly identical 

 with that of Gnophoela. I see as yet no good reason for placing 

 Phryganidia in a separate family, nor for placing the "Dioptidse," 

 as Smith does, between the Psychidse and Notodontidae, as it has 

 no affinities with either group. 



Family COSSID^. 



The freshly-hatched larva of Prionoxystus robini^ Peck. 



The eggs were received from Mr. H. Meeske, and hatched on 

 July 3d. 



Egg. — Very large, length 2.7 ; greatest diameter 1.8 mm. Irregu- 

 larly oval in shape, with the surface more coarsely pitted than in 

 any lepidopterous e^g I have examined. The shell is not very 

 thick, but examined with a triplet is seen to be divided into unusu- 

 ully large shallow irregular polygonal areas. Under a ^-inch objec- 

 tive the areas are seen to be very irregularly polygonal, often nearly 

 4-sided and oblong; the areas are somewhat depressed and with 

 raised edges, which, however, like the areas, are smooth, not granu- 

 lated. 



