NOTES ON THE HARTTS AND T.lKPMTTSTOnY OF OBGYIA SPLENDTP.N. 11 



Mesopes in the Acridiidac, and take its place with Achiirum and 

 Rhadinotatum in the Tnixalidae. 



It is so " Truxaline " in appearance, that it has long been a 

 temptation to effect this move, but orthopterists have always said, " it 

 has a tubercle on the sternum, therefore it must be of the Artidiiilac.''' 

 But this tubercle is an arbitrary character, which must be treated as 

 a servant and not as a master ; these genera are so Truxaline in every 

 other character that the accumulation of other points must outweigh 

 this little tubercle. I have proposed this change to Brunner himself, 

 and it has met with his emphatic approval. 



The order of the genera occurring in the first group in Brunner' s 

 arrangement of the Tni.mlidar in his llevision in 1898, will therefore 

 be as follows: — Airida, Htal. { = Tni.i-alis, Fabr.), then the three 

 genera AcJuirum, Rhadinatatum and (Telastnrr/iiniis; these are followed 

 by Hyaldptt'rijx, Charp., and 'J'nixalii^, Fabr. {:^Metaleptca, Brunner) 

 together, following which are CalaiiiHs, Sauss., with Karsch's African 

 genera, (Tli^phodonns Sjiid Aid phi(re)iuia, with Odo)itonidi(K,'Bo\.; then 

 Oxijolena, Karsch, and finally Aniyrus, Stal., and Machaeridia, Stal. 



Notes on the habits and life=history of Orgyla splendida {in'th plate). 



By T. A. CHAPMAN, M.D., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



During the visit of Mr. Champion and myself to the Albarracin 

 district of Spain last summer, we found at Cuenca a cocoon of ()n/(/ia 

 duhia var. splendida, under a stone, and another, together with a larva, 

 at Tragacete. I believe we saw the moth on the wing at Cuenca, at 

 Tragacete, and at Albarracin. On a wooded ridge, near Bronchales, a 

 good many moths were seen Hying, but none were captured. Noting that 

 my first cocoon contained a female moth that had laid some eggs in 

 her cocoon, and that she seemed to be an On/i/ia, I concluded that she 

 belonged to the (K splendida of which we had seen several males on 

 the wing, and of which I had taken one or two. This called to my 

 mind something I had heard or read about the pairing of some of 

 these Orgyias, but when or where I could not remember. I have tried 

 to find out where I had read this, and to discover some reference to 

 the habits of 0. splendida, but have failed. The only reference I have 

 unearthed is an account by Dr. Breyer in the Belgian Entomological 

 Society's Anncdes of the history and pairing of fh-iji/iaerieae. As others 

 may be as ill-informed on this matter as I was myself, it may not be 

 useless to record my observations on O. splendida, and, though I think 

 it probable that the facts are already somewhere reported, a confirma- 

 tion of them may not be altogether superfluous. 



O. antiijua, as everyone knows, has a female with well developed 

 legs and rudimentary wings. She emerges from her cocoon, which 

 she never leaves, and lays her eggs on its oixter surface. In (>. (/<>n- 

 ostiijnia the history is the same, with the interesting difference that there 

 is an outer loose cocoon, or netAvork of silk, beneath which the female 

 moth remains, laying her eggs on the inner, true cocoon. This is a 

 step onwards towards the habit of (>. ericae, which, according to Dr. 

 Breyer, emerges from her chrysalis sufficiently to make a small open- 

 ing in it, but does not emerge from it, but reverses her position in the 

 chrysalis case, so that pairing takes place through this opening, the 

 male outside, the female inside the cocoon. He does not say bow the 



