l50 TSE ENT0M0L0GIST*S RECORt). 



Arctica pud'ica is stated by Geiger to produce a dry, whirring sound, 

 comparable to that made by grasshoppers. Ribbe states that an 

 Indian Agrotid, Glottula radians, has been noticed to squeak. The 

 American butterfly Ageronia feronia, when commencing to fly, makes 

 a clappering noise like castanets, which may be expressed by the 

 syllables " tetteret tet tet." It is thought that this noise is produced 

 by the rubbing of certain distended veins of the primaries over the 

 secondary wings. In the genus Hypf^a both sexes have on the under- 

 side of the fore-wings a thorn, while the hind-wings show near the 

 costa a space covered with hard and furrowed scales. It seems that 

 the creaking noise here noticed is made by the rubbing of the thorn 

 over this specialised field of the secondaries ; while the volume of tone 

 seems in this instance possibly increased, by a blister-like enlargement 

 of the epidermis of the fore-wing in the vicinity of the thorn. The 

 males of the Noctuid Thecophora fovea which have a blister-like 

 depression of the secondaries make, in flying, a shrill noise. It seems 

 possible that the various peculiar modifications of the male wings, 

 which have been noticed in exotic Agrotides, may be used in the 

 production of sounds. The question as to whether these insect- 

 sounds are audible, as we hear them, to other insects, is an unsolved 

 problem. But for purposes of protection it would be sufficient, in 

 some instances, if they were audible to the vertebrate ear, and 

 heightened the deception in form and colour impressed upon the 

 vertebrate eye. — A. Radcliffe Grote, A.M. 



On the dorsal spines of the larv^ of Euvanessa antiopa. — In 

 Larvae of British Butterflies, vol. i., p. 53, Mr. Buckler says of the 

 spines of the larvae of Vanessa antiopa : — " On the third and fourth 

 segments there are four rows of spines (the second has none), but on all 

 the other segments there are seven rows, that is, seven spines are 

 planted round the middle of each segment, viz., a dorsal, which is the 

 shortest and a little in advance of the others, subdorsal, lateral and 

 subspiracular." Buckler counts the head as segment 1, the three 

 thoracic segments as segments 2, 3 and 4 ; so that the first, 

 second and third abdominal segments become segments 5, 6, 7 and 

 so on. Now the above statement says that the pro thoracic segment 

 has no spines, the meso- and meta-thoracic segments two pairs each, 

 the rest (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and other abdominal segments) " 7 

 spines " each, " viz., a dorsal, a pair each of subdorsal, lateral and 

 subspiracular." On p. 54 the same author writes: "The dorsal 

 row of shorter spines commences on the seventh segment." Buckler 

 has already stated in the first quotation that the 1st and 2nd 

 abdominal segments have a dorsal spine ; now in the latter quotation 

 (a part of the same description) he denies that this is so. The latter 

 is evidently correct, and bears out Hcudder's generic definition of 

 Euranessa, which reads as follows : " First and second abdominal 

 segments with no spine on middle line of back." I call attention to 

 this lecause o: its misleading character, and because of the important 

 bearing this different structure of the caterjiillar has on the generic 

 divisions of the very different species we include under the generic 

 title Vanessa. — J. W. Tutt. 



