322 THE entomologist's record. 



which is most notable as being easily " assembled." These, for the most 

 part, have males with highly pectinate or plumose antenna;', and 

 females of heavy build and sluggish habits, and include those with 

 apterous females (except the Hybernias whose apterous $ s are very 

 active). In this section the first suitor that arrives is accepted at 

 once. Moths whose $ s are of more active habits have much more 

 rarely pectinate antenna in the males, as, for example, most Noctuids, 

 Tortricids, etc. The circumstance of mere arrival being sufficient 

 courtship, as Avith the pectinate moths, attains apparently in one 

 section of butterflies, viz., those Satyrids that have neither fine colours 

 nor scent- patches — Erehia, Coenonympha, Epinephele, etc. In these 

 the $ s are of very shy and retiring habits, and are, in fact, rarely 

 seen tdl busied about egglaying, and have thus acquired the reputation 

 of being rarer than the males. As is well-knoAvn, the extreme examples 

 of this group, in which the females are mere egg-bags and possess no 

 aesthetic senses and are without sight, smell, or hearing, have males 

 in which all colour and pattern have vanished, and are usually of an 

 uniform black, of which the majority of the Psijchidae and the Hetero- 

 (jijnidae are instances. 



Mr. Morice mentioned that many j" bees have special scents, and ob- 

 served that, as a sexual dimorphic character in many aculeates of widely 

 separate groups, the <? s have yellow faces, represented usually in the 2 s 

 by two small dots. This yellow face must afford some distinct advantage 

 to the c? , but it was left very vague what it could be ; perhaps it was 

 useless and meaningless except as being correlated with some c? 

 specialisation of the antennae, at whose base the yellow region is. 

 This seems very doubtful, since, unless it was useful in itself, it would 

 be eliminated and the face possess the dark colour, which the females 

 show to be more advantageous for general use. The dots on the ? 

 face are very probably transferred male characters, i.e., the ? has not 

 succeeded in quite resisting the inheritance of a yellow face from the 

 ^ , just as serrate antennae are common m ? moths whose 3- s have 

 highly pectinate antennae. In many of these aculeates,. courtship 

 takes a different form from those above noted, there is, indeed, no 

 courtship proper, no gradual fascination of the lady, nor is the first 

 suitor to arrive accepted, on the contrary, the $ appears to make 

 strenuous efforts to escape the male attentions, and marriage is by 

 capture. This is probably of advantage to the species as cultivating 

 in the <? , not less than in the $ , that strenuous activity on which 

 these insects depend for their living ; were the ^ inert, the cross- 

 inheritance between the sexes would make it difficult for the ? to 

 maintain the high standard necessary. Does the yellow face assist 

 the c? at all in the sudden dash by which the capture of the ? is 

 usually effected ? We do not even know that all these yellow- faced 

 species do pair by capture, but we may imagine that the yellow face 

 makes the <? less conspicuous on his approach, or in some other way 

 may enable him to get a little nearer before his presence is realised by 

 the $ . 



Trumpet" hairs on the pupa of Chrysophanus dispar {icith plate). 



By Dr. T. A. CHAPMAN. 

 In the year 1893, Mr. F. H. Wolley Dod was kind enough to give 

 me some pupa-cases of Chrysophanus dispar, specimens resulting from 

 the rearing of this species by his father and uncle from larv^ collected 



