THE BRITISH LIPARID MOTHS. 75 



larva had all the spots faintly marked, except that between the 2nd 

 and fird thoracic segments. 



PoRTiiKsiA siMiLis (auriflua). — Ist stage, dull yellowish in colour. 

 Tubercles large, bearing a number of long, stout, thorny, black hairs ; 

 2nd and 3rd thoracic segments bear smaller tubercles than any of the 

 others. The dorsal tubercles of Gth and 7th abdominal segments bear, 

 in addition to other hairs, one very stout hair or bristle ; these extra 

 stout hairs slope towards centre of segment, their points, nearly or 

 quite, meeting over the centre of segment. 2nd skin : In this stage 

 the larva practically attains its adult coloration. Dorsal hairs are 

 black, lateral hairs white. The 1st abdominal segment bears a hump, 

 and the 2nd a slight one. The tubercles (? posterior trapezoidals) on 

 1st abdominal are very large and close together ; they bear, in addition 

 to the long hairs, a stiff short brush or tuft of thorny black hairs, and 

 a few pure white branched hairs thickly covered with slender thorns, 

 giving them a furry appearance. The branches, taken separately, 

 remind me of nothing so much as a white cat's tail. Tubercles on 

 the 2nd abdominal also bear a few of these white branched hairs, and 

 in some larva? they are present on other segments as well. 3rd skin : 

 This differs but slightly from the previous stage. The orange deepens 

 into scarlet, and the white plumed (cat's tail) hairs are more numerous 

 on 1st, 2nd and 8th abdominal segments, and a few are present on the 

 tubercles of other segments. There is no change, of which I am aware, 

 in the later stages, save that the white plumed hairs become more 

 numerous, and the colours, if possible, more brilliant. A pad of silk 

 is spun on which the larva? rest when about to moult. The eversible 

 glands are very active in these larvae, and are far more frequently seen 

 in operation than is the case in P. monaclui, 0. dispar and L. salicis. 

 The urticating hairs are very similar to those of P. chnjsorrhoea. 



{To be continued.) 



On a New Classification of the Rhopalocera. 



By ENZIO REUTER, Ph. D. 

 (Continued from p. 26.) 



Starting from the primitive type of basalfleck as previously defined, 

 we can, within the different gentes and families, trace out various lines 

 of development. It would occupy too much space to describe all these 

 in detail. I will, therefore, give only a few general sketches of the 

 modifications that the basalfleck undergoes in its change from a 

 generalised, to a more or less specialised, condition. 



The basalfleck itself often tends to become diminished, in its most 

 modified forms (in some Sat>/ridae and more frequently in the Xi/iupJia- 

 lidae), by being reduced to a rather small space on the hind and upper 

 angle of the inner side of the basal joint (PI. I., fig. 4). The distal end 

 usually becomes rounded, or well-defined transversely by regularly 

 arranged scales, and the hind border of the basal-fleck, which, in the 

 I'apilionidae, Pieridae, and in most of the Lycaenidae and Kri/ci)iiilar, 

 is continued immediately backwards (fig. 9) upon the hind, tapering 

 part of the basal joint (which may be called the " shaft " of the 

 palpus), so that the hind part of the basal-fleck passes over to, and is 

 continued upon, the "shaft" of the palpus, is no longer so con- 

 tinued. In the more specialised families, then, the hind part of the 



