SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND dBSERVATIONS. 1:0 < 



l>erliaps I may be allowed to say a few words on the subject. Speaking 

 generally, we find in those species whicli possess the organ, that the 

 males have a strong single ])ristle, springing from a prominence on the 

 costal nervure of the hind- wing, and passing through a looj) situated on 

 the costal nervure of the fore-wing : that the females possess a number 

 (varying in different species from two to upwards of twenty) of slender 

 and weak bristles arising from the same point as the single bristle of 

 the male, and that these bristles, instead of passing into a loop, are 

 thrust into, and entangled among, a group of large raised scales or hairs, 

 situated l)et ween the costal and median nervures of the fore- wings : 

 in no case with which I am acrpxainted, has the female insect the single 

 liristle, or the loop. This appliance prol)ably reaches its higliest de- 

 velopment among the typical Sphiiujidae, but the case is far different 

 with tlie Smerinthine group, many of which, including the giant 

 Caequosd triangularis from Australia, possess it either weakly developed 

 or quite abortive. In this, as in several other respects, they approxi- 

 mate to the bi"oad-winged Bomljycids — Lasiocampa, Aftacits, Saturnia, 

 and their allies — to which they are proljably nearly related. Consider- 

 ing now our three Smerintliine moths, we find that S. tiJlae possesses 

 the loop and bristle fairly well developed, and certainly (^uite effective, 

 as the male has a well-defined loop, and the bristles of the female are 

 sufficiently long to interlock with the scales of the fore-wing. In S. 

 ocellatns, the male has a very short bristle, and the female a cluster of 

 very small ones ; the loop of the male is absent, as stated by Mr. Bacot, 

 and the whole appliance is probably useless, or nearly so. The male 

 of S. popnli possesses the prominence on the hind-wing from which, in 

 other species, the bristle proceeds ; this is rounded in outline, and in 

 some few examples terminates in a minute point which can hardly be 

 called a bristle ; all the female specimens which I have examined 

 microscopically, have a very small but perfectly formed bunch of 

 bristles lying close to the edge of the wing : but clearly in both sexes 

 the appliance is quite useless, and is merely a survival. Although for 

 the sake of simplicity it may seem well to follow the usual course of 

 uniting our three Smerintki in one genus, yet, taking into account 

 the allied Euroi^ean and Exotic species, there is probably good ground 

 for considering tiliae at least to be generically distinct from the other 

 two, even if they are not all three representatives of different genera, 

 not in respect of diversities of the frenulum alone, but in view of many 

 other points. — Geo. C. Griffiths, Clifton. May 1th, 1895. 



On the development of pi(;ment in Xemeobius lucina. — Most 

 pu2:)a-cases are too opaque to permit the processes going on witliin the 

 })upa to be observed through them. Such observations are, however, 

 possible in the case of butterfly pupa?, especially where the imago is 

 dark coloured. Last j'ear, from a few eggs of N. lucina sent me by 

 Mr. Tutt, I succeeded in obtaining two pupre. These were of a pale 

 wainscot-brown colour, with a number of black spots. Of this colour 

 they remained through tlie winter, and, in fact, till within a short period 

 of the emergence of the imagines. The first imago emerged on May 

 1st ; its pupa passed through the same changes as those to be immedi- 

 ately mentioned in connection witli tlu' seetmd, l)ut no exact record was 

 kept of them. The second pupa remained of the original colour until 

 May 8th. At 9.30 a.m. on that day tlie thorax had become of a dark 

 smoky black ; at 11 a.m., the dark tint had invaded the central dorsal 



