26 THE entomologist's record. 



further in the work. It seems a shame to waste material 

 which could be made of so much use by those who are 

 scientifically working up the group, and I trust that those who 

 find insects of these orders will set at least types and get them 

 identified. 



Mr. McLachlan's Trichoptera of the European Fauna is by 

 far the best book on the Trichoptera ; but those who do not 

 care to go to the expense of the work will be able to study 

 fairly from the same author's Trichoptera Britannica, published 

 in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, in 

 Part I., October, 1865, and Part II., July, 1868, respectively. 

 Dr. Hagen's papers in the Entomologist' s Amiual, from 1857 to 

 1861 will be found most useful. 



THE GENUS ACRONYCTA AND ITS ALLIES. 



By Dr. T. A. CHAPMAN. 

 (Continued from page 4.) 



'The three divisions into which the genus Acronycta thus 

 naturally falls do not, so far as I can find, precisely agree 

 with any sub-genera that have been proposed. Semaphora, Gn., 

 for the psi group is the nearest, but this genus did not include 

 the whole group, and that Guende did not fully understand the 

 inter-relation of the species, having chiefly studied the imago, 

 is clear from his placing ahii and ligustri in the same group. 

 I feel constrained, therefore, very unwillingly, to provide names 

 for these groups ; and since the pupa most distinctly classifies 

 them, I take the character of the pupa on which to frame the 

 designation. 



The first, or runiicis group, which is the most typically 

 Acronycta, I call Viminia {Viinen, a barrel hoop formed of a 

 split willow branch), from the hoop-like raised margin of the 

 segments of the pupa, which is present more or less in all, and 

 very marked in some species {vide Plate I., fig. i). 



This group is characterised by the eggs being laid in groups, 

 usually in a very regular manner, imbricated, that is, in regular 

 rows overlapping each other, an arrangement which their flat- 

 ness permits, and which is precisely the same as in certain 

 Pyralid/E, but does not occur elsewhere, so far as I know, 

 among the Noctu^, the form of the ^gg rendering it indeed 

 impossible, though the typical Noctua group of eggs is laid in 

 the same order, but being spherical (more or less) are side by 

 side instead of overlapping. 



