the Larv6B of the Noctuce. 27 



peculiarity of loox^ing up the back when in motion ;" this 

 habit is lost after the first moult. (First Annual Report, 

 1869, pp. 73, 74.) 



Leucania unipimcta, Haworth (the " army worm," = L. 

 extranea, Guenee). Newly hatched larva has "two front 

 pair of prolegs atrophied, so as to necessitate looping in 

 motion." Still geometriform in second stage. In third 

 stage looping habit lost, "but the front prolegs are still 

 somewhat the smallest." In the fourth stage the claspers 

 are of nearly equal size, and in the sixth stage the front 

 claspers are said to be, if anything, longer than the hind 

 ones. (Eighth Annual Report, 1876, pp. 184, 185.) 



Leucania albilinea, Guenee. Newly hatched larva " quite 

 a looper, the prolegs or joints 6 and 7 being still more atro- 

 phied, and those on joint 8 being short. "^ Looping habit 

 lost in second stage. (Ninth Annual Report, 1877, pp. 53 

 and 56.) 



All these facts point to the conclusion that the Noctuae 

 have been derived from geometriform ancestors, so that this 

 group is phyletically younger, i.e., has made a further ad- 

 vance in the development than the Geometras. The geome- 

 triform sections of the Noctuae are thus the more closely 

 related to the Geometrse, and, as already insisted upon by 

 Mr. Lockyer in the note referred to,^ should therefore follow 

 this last group, as in Stainton's list. The higher groups of 

 Bombyciform Noctuae (Thyatira) approach the Pseudo-Bom- 

 byces in the attitude assumed by the larva when at rest, as 

 well as in the characters of the imago. If, therefore, the 

 Psi/chidcB be referred to the Tineina, the following arrange- 

 ment appears to me to best represent the existing state of 

 our knowledge, although, of course, further investigations of 

 larval ontogeny may lead to other modifications : — 



s The author does not consider the head as the first segment, so that 

 segments 6, 7, and 8 correspond with segments 7, 8, and 9 of Enghsh 

 entomologists. 



c Mr. Lockyer draws the conckision that the Geometrae are " undeveloped 

 Noctua,''^ an expression which appears to me misleading, as it imi^lies 

 that the existing Geometrte are in course of transformation into Nocture, 



