1896.] 175 



siderably over a hundi-ed must have emerged already, and till two or three days ago 

 scarcely a smgle female appeared — now the majority are of that sex. The males are 

 excessively active and eager to escape, and run over and spoil each other very 

 quickly, so that to obtain really perfect examples it is almost necessary to watch as 

 they emerge and allow each to dry its wings alone. When quite perfect the moth, 

 in both sexes, is very beautiful, the apical half of the fore-wings in the male, and 

 the same portion, with the basal and costal areas, in the female, being clothed 

 with rich dark green scales overlying the browner scales. When the moth begins 

 to run about or to fly these green scales become detached and shake off, leaving the 

 ground-colour as usually observed — pinkish-white in the males, reddish-brown in 

 the females, and this partial denudation does not commence, like any usual process 

 of wearing, from the hind margin, but the green scales near the middle of the wing 

 are first shaken off, and thence gradually to the hind margin. 



It may be well to point out that the interesting information above, furnished by 

 Mr. Sladen, fully explains what to me appeared to be a serious difficulty (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., vol. xxxi, p. 73) when under the impression that the larvae had fed 

 in wasps' nests. — C. Gr. Barrett, June \Qth, 1896]. 



THE GENERIC TERM NEURONIA AS APPLIED IN TRICHOPTERA 



AND LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY ROBERT McLACHLAN, F.R.S., &c. 



The latest authorities here and in America persist in following 

 many previous writers on Lepidoptera by maintaining the generic term 

 Neuronia for the moth originally described by Fabricius as Bombyx 

 popularis. According to my views this is an error. It probably arose 

 with Agassiz, who, in his "Index" (copied by Scudder and other 

 successors in the art of cataloguing names), has a generic term 

 Neuronia, Hiibner, 1816 {Lepidoptera), and a generic term Neuronia, 

 Leach, Steph., 1837 {Neuroptera). The Neuropterous (or Trichop- 

 terous) name originated with Leach in his article, " Entomology," in 

 Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol.ix, p. 136, and was published 

 in 1815 ; it is still in use in the sense in which it was intended. 

 Hiibner's Neuronia was published in the "Yerzeichniss," 215, 6. The 

 title-page of this work bears the date " 1816 ;" Mr. J. Hartley 

 Durrant, who has worked out the dates of publication from internal 

 evidence, assures me that the portion of it containing the name in 

 question certainly did not appear until after 1822 and before 1826. 

 But even the date 1816 would suffice to give priority to Leach's term. 

 Therefore, the Lepidopterists should substitute or invent another 

 generic name for the familiar moth-genus. 



Lewisham, London : 



January 25th, 1896. 



