292 THE ENtOMOLOGIST's RECORD. 



a 2 captured at Aix-les-Bains, on August 18th.] I observe that 

 Hellins {E.M.M., ii., p. 163) says : "The eggs of P. aenca {riridaria) 

 are of the ordinary Noctua form, round, ribbed, and with flat under- 

 side." I simply remark this, as the description evidently wants 

 verifying by someone when eggs of this species are again available. 

 I know mistakes will happen, and that eggs have before now been 

 described as those of an insect which did not lay them, but which 

 happened to be in the box when the eggs were first observed. 



Acidalia ochrata. — The eggs were laid loosely in a box by a confined 

 $ . There is considerable variation in the shape of the eggs, but they 

 are broadly oval in outline, rather flattened at the micropylar end, the 

 length : breadth : : 4 : 3^. There is a. deep depression on the 

 upper surface, placed chiefly towards the end, remote from the micro- 

 pyle, so that this end of the egg is much thinner than the micropylar. 

 The egg is of a dull greyish-yellow colour, covered over with a most 

 striking coarse dark grey polygonal (mainly hexagonal) reticulation, 

 arranged longitudinally. The micropyle is placed centrally at the 

 broad end of the egg. It consists of a minute clear central area, 

 surrounded by much liner polygonal reticulation than that character- 

 ising the remainder of the egg. [The eggs were laid on August 22nd 

 by a $ captured at Aix-les-Bains, and the description was made on 

 August 24th under a two-thirds lens.] 



Thecla w-alhum. — The eggs are laid above or directly below an 

 aborted leaf-bud, and harmonise so exactly with the colour of the bark 

 of the elm twig on which they are placed, that only an entomologist 

 could possibly detect them. They appear to be placed on the old and 

 not on the growing twigs, and are laid either in couples or singly. 

 The egg is remarkable in appearance, owing to a prominent whitish 

 belt which runs around its equator. A side view gives a distinct idea, 

 even under a lens of moderate power, that it is minutely hairy. 

 Looked at from above, the egg presents the appearance of a whitish 

 rim, extending beyond a dark reddish central portion, which is heaped 

 up cone-like, but flattened on the top with a circular depression at 

 the apex [I can think of no better simile than a jam tart, with 

 a prominent crust, the jam heaped-up centrally and then flattened on 

 the top] . The white rim consists of the upper (and protruding) 

 layers of pointed cells of which the base is formed, the lower rings of 

 these cells decreasing in size until the point of attachment is reached, 

 the whole forming a sort of shallow basin, in which the central part 

 of the egg is placed. The central part of the egg forms a flat trun- 

 cated cone, dark reddish in colour, minutely pitted, and suggesting 

 towards the lower part of the cone a polygonal structure. A large 

 number of points also arise from the surface, and there is a suspicion 

 that these bear minute hairs. The micropylar area is very con- 

 spicuous and well-defined. It consists of a circular basin, in the 

 centre of the flattened apex, the sides of the hollow almost perpen- 

 dicular, the micropyle proper appearing as a minute depression in the 

 centre of its base, and surrounded by concentric rings of tiny cells. 

 [Eggs received July 17th, from the Rev. G. H. Raynor, described 

 under a two-thirds lens on July 19th.] Newman describes the egg as 

 being "shaped something like an orange, but more depressed on the 

 crown." I should like to know what egg Newman had. — J. W. Tutt. 



On the cAUDAii HORN OF Agdistis. — I was much astonished at the 



