266 THE entomologist's record. 



could. The eggs were laid not only with little of the Arctiid arrange- 

 ment, but practically, in irregular heaps. They are small, yellow, 

 almost spherical, and with apparently a quite smooth surface. Their 

 diameter is about 0"55mm. The eggs changed little till about two 

 days before hatching, when a brownish shade could be noticed, and 

 for a day before they were nearly black. I found that, though of 

 fairly firm texture, they required a moist atmosphere to prevent 

 shrinking. The whole circumstances seemed to show that naturally 

 the eggs would be laid on the ground, under as dense a covering of 

 growing plants as could be found. This necessity is in agreement 

 with the habit of the insect of jestivating as a pupa through the arid 

 period of the year (in South and Central Spain), and emerging when 

 the autumn rainfall has moistened the soil and started vegetation. 



Have the remarkable forelegs any relation to this method of 

 laying ? The spines that occur at the distal margin of the tibia in 

 some species of Ocnogyna are extremely well developed in this species, 

 nearly as well in the male as the female. 



In the female the tibia is very short, nearly as broad at the 

 extremity as it is long, and has three very long (comparatively) thick 

 strong teeth. The femur is exceedingly thick and strong, and 

 obviously contains muscles that have something to do. 



Do both sexes need them for emergence from the cocoon, which is 

 semi-subterranean, and lying over all summer, may be beset so as to 

 be difficult to escape from ? Or, is the ? armature to enable a hollow 

 to be reached or made for the eggs, and has the male a similar set of 

 weapons to enable him to reach the ? who may already have reached 

 some way m her excavations ? That the $ may have some other 

 function to exercise than the $ is evidenced by the remarkable 

 development of the tibial spur in the <? and its atrophy in the ? . 

 This no doubt has some reference to the pectinated almost plumose 

 antennae of the S , the spur being part of the apparatus for cleaning 

 feathery antennae. 



Explanation of Plate X. 



Fig. 2. — Dorsal view of front tibia of cf Ocnogyna boetica. 



Fig. 3. — Ventral view of front tibia of d Ocnogyna boetica. 



a. Femur. c. Tibial spine (a process of tibia). 



b. Tibia. d. Tibial spur (the usual jointed appendage). 



Cidaria picata double°brooded. Its distribution in Britain. 



By (Rev.) G. H. RAYNOR, M.A. 

 On the afternoon of July 7th, a very hot day, I beat out of a hedge 

 at Danbury half a dozen specimens of Cidaria picata. Two of these, 

 being females, I kept for eggs, but, as is generally the case with this 

 species, they laid very sparmgly. The eggs hatched nine days after- 

 wards (on July 16th, 1905), and the resulting larv<©, thirty-five in 

 number, grew so rapidly, that they had all gone down by August 12th. 

 Having made rather a close study of this species, and having never 

 heard of a second brood, I kept no special watch on the glass-fronted 

 box containing the pupae, but, happening to look round my caterpillar- 

 room on the evening of August 30th, I was intensely surprised to see 

 half-a-dozen full-sized imagines in the box, and these were followed by 

 two more on September 2nd. No others have appeared up till now 

 (September 20th), so that the remainder of the pupae will probably 



