NOTES ON PHORODESMA (cOJUK/ENA) PUSTULATA, HT'FN. 1'75 



Bevan, my most sincere thanks are due, for a plentiful supply of eggs, 

 and I can only express my great regret that after such kindness 

 received, these gentlemen's contributions to this paper should have 

 been largely lost. Through some unfortunate and unexplained reason, 

 with the exception of the few larva^ which 1 pickled as soon as they 

 hatched, the whole stock entirely disappeared before the first moult. 

 Whether they wanted the companionship of the little yellow ant, as we 

 are told fA/rorna avion does, or whether they did not, 1 do not know. 

 I saw no lurking enemy about. This was quite a disaster to me, as I 

 was left with only two pickled specimens, full-grown, and as it turned 

 out when they were submitted to the microscope, very far gone towards 

 pupation. And to make matters more trying for me, I knew that 

 several of my friends had beaten larvje in the spring, in just the state 

 1 wanted most, and did not send them on, as they thought 1 wanted 

 eggs, and not larvR> just out of hybernation. Had I had one, just one, 

 of these, I should have been able to place a better picture before you 

 to-night. 



You will notice at once the striking likeness between the larvie, of 

 the two species, and the striking dilierences. Again in P. pnstidata the 

 special hairs we noticed in P. >;tiiora(idaria, if hairs they can be called, 

 again special organs. Yet I think that the young larva of P. pustidata 

 is, in its way, far more interesting than the other. I find it quite 

 impossible to place on paper the extraordinary "rugosities" of its 

 formation. You will notice the projecting lobes upon the sides of the 

 1st to the oth abdominal segments forming a sort of " shelf" along 

 the sides, and appearing again at the dorsal angle of the 8th segment. 

 This projecting lobe upon the first five abdominal segments is shaped 

 and developed in much the same way, its general plan you will see 

 from the enlarged figure (fig. iii). Notice the strong hook (fig. iiia) 

 directed backwards, round which the silken web is bound by the larva 

 to secure its own particular bunch of fragments. This hook represents the 

 "turf-cutter" hair, or process, upon the young larva of P. nwarmidana. 

 Then we have upon these lobes, and also, curiously enough, on almost 

 every segment, thoracic and abdominal, a number of curious processes 

 (fig. iii/;) which I thought at first were flattened hairs, but which 

 proved to be no hairs at all, but to be hollow, and now tilled with fluid, 

 for you will be able to distinguish bubbles in some of them. J call 

 these " battledore processes," for, to my idea, they closely resemble in 

 form the parchment covered plaything of our childhood. I am quite 

 unable to understand the purpose of these curious organs, unless they 

 be " water-bottles " to moisten the young larva, whose home is high 

 up, perhaps above the dews, and whose dress is as dry as chaff. But 

 what an antagonism this would present. Clothes to keep the wet out, 

 and vessels to keep it in ! and all in one tiny insect. 



I apologise again for my drawing of the full-grown larva of /'. 

 imstidata (fig. v). The specimen was too old, when pickled, for my 

 purpose, and it will be obvious to every entomologist that its larval 

 df;iys were very nearly ended. I suspect then, that its structure is 

 somewhat modified from what it was when younger. One would 

 expect the larval peculiarities to be now merging into the pupal, but 

 how far '? You will notice the extreme development of the special 

 organs (fig. va) which have now taken the place of the hooks. These 



