THE GENUS ACRONYCTA AND ITS ALLIES. 83- 



the antennas are slight elevations, closer together than in 

 rumtcis, less so than in auricoina. The " hoops " of the 

 abdominal segments are broad and flat, and would hardly be 

 described as hoops, except for the homology with the other 

 species, and the warts of the dorsum are less large than in 

 rniiiicis, and fade away towards the margin sooner. The 

 membrane of the incisions is nearly black. The apical por- 

 tion of the pupa is larger, more round and blunt than in 

 riiuiicis, the brown bristles are darker, sparser, and shorter, 

 and the hollow in the ventral aspect is deeper ; the apex might 

 almost be described as hemispherical, but that the ventral 

 portion of the hemisphere is wanting, owing to this hollow — it is 

 rough, and has several indistinct points along its dorsal margin. 



The hairs are exceedingly minute, almost microscopic, 

 especially those at the antennal base : there are also a few 

 hairs on the prothorax. 



In Plate II., the details of the pupse of Viininia are shown 

 {auricoina is in Plate I.). The differences between the several 

 species are well represented, but are, if anything, somewhat 

 exaggerated. The two anterior nodules are large and near 

 together in menyanthidis, smaller and further apart in rumicis 

 and venosa. The difference in sculpturing shown {a) is rather 

 due to a slightly different aspect of each pupa having been 

 taken, all have a tendency to this decided marking on the 

 prothorax shown in rumicis, and rumicis rareh' has it in so 

 pronounced a degree. The " hoops " {b) are most marked in 

 rumicis and venosa, least in myricce and auricoma. As regards the 

 anal armature {c) the differences are not really quite as marked as. 

 shown ; all have the stiff brush of brown bristles, and all have 

 certain nearly obsolete spines or points, which in venosa and 

 rumicis are so placed as to form the angles of a somewhat 

 quadrangular end, in myricce, and still more in menyanthidis, 

 the end is larger, more rounded, and the spines or points are 

 less marked and terminal, but they are not so decidedly 

 different from rumicis and venosa as the drawings suggest. In 

 menyanthidis the bristles are less pronounced and easily lost, 

 but they are usually rather more abundant than shown in the 

 figure. Indeed the degree to which these bristles persist 

 makes much more difference between the species in appear- 

 ance than the actual pupa, apart from the bristles, really pre- 

 sents ; they are, however, more abundant, larger, and more 

 persistent in rumicis and venosa than in the others. All these 

 pupae have two small hairs at the base of each antenna ; these 



