HYBRIDS — 13Y CROSSING T. lilSTORTATA WITH T. CRKPUSCULARIA. 2l9 



<? crepuscular id (2ii(l brood) x $ XDr. K(J bistortata x 2 

 delamerensis). One attempt. A fairly large batch of ova were laid, 

 nearly all of which proved fertile. The larvae were very robust, and 

 fed up rapidly. Unfortunately, I was so much occupied at the time 

 that I was unable to make any notes on the larva: or ova of this 

 interesting brood. Fifty specimens (88 J s and 12 $ s) emerged during 

 the autumn of 1897, and 18 pupae are going over the winter. Eighteen 

 of the moths (IG 3 « a-nd two J s) take after the delamerensis strain, being 

 of a dark suft'used grey, more or less blotched and streaked with white 

 or pale grey ; 81 (nine J s and 22 ^ s) are of various shades of grey and 

 ochreous grey, with more or less normal dark markings. A few 

 approach rather closely to the uuile parent, others are nearer to the 

 histortata form or of some middle shade, while five or six females, most 

 of which emerged late in the autumn, are very large, and closely 

 resemble the spring form of T. histortata, except that the ground colour 

 is whiter and less suffused. The remaining specimen (a $ ) is small 

 and poorly developed, colour dull, suffused and slightly ochreous-grey, 

 hardly any of the usual dark markings show. 



Only one point seems clear enough and important enough to call 

 for remark. I refer to the difference in the fertility of ova of the first 

 and second crosses. With the former, the whole of any one batch of 

 .ova were either fertile or infertile, but with the ova obtained from the 

 second crosses, a portion of the ova in nearly all the batches laid 

 proved infertile, the proportion varying in different batches, from one 

 or two infertile eggs to all but one or two infertile. This surely points 

 to some deformity of the sexual organs, or else to a want of vitality 

 in the males. 



<irOLEOPTERA. 



Notes on the British Longicornes. 



By HORACE DO^'ISTHOKPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



Ik'fore entering into the subject of this paper, it may be as well to 

 consider what is a Lougicorne, and what position it takes in the 

 scale of nature. 



Tiie Longicornia form one of the largest families of the order 

 Coleoi)tera, indeed, between KmhiO and 12,000 have already been 

 described, and I should think that if one added the number of 

 undescribed species in collections, 15,000 would be rather under 

 than over the mark. 



Canon Fowler gives the chief characteristics of the group as 

 follows : — " Form elongate, usually more or less depressed, with the 

 elytra almost always broader than the thorax, usually considerably so ; 

 head variable, eyes, as a rule, emargiuate, rarely entire, sometimes 

 entirely divided ; antenna* usually very long, but occasionally (('.</., in 

 llhoi/ium) short, inserted either in front of or between the eyes, not 

 clavate, liliform or setaceous, rarely serrate or pectinate, in exotic 

 genera occasionally ornamented with brushes of hair ; maxillae with 

 two lobes, one l)eing occasionally obsolete, mandibles strong, labial 

 paljji 8-jointed, thorax rarely margined, sometimes denticulate at sides; 

 elytra, as a rule, covering abdomen, l)ut sometimes abbreviated; 

 abdomen composed of five free ventral segments, a sixth being some- 



