LIFE-HISTORIES. 55 



opaque and stront>- in appearance, coarsely ribbed longitudinally, and 

 with almost equally coarse cross-ribbing. Towards the base the 

 longitudinal character fades out, and is replaced by a coarse and 

 irregular cell-ribbing. The longitudinal character of ribbing is most 

 pronounced on the upper two-thirds, the longitudinal structure being 

 here aided by the way in which the dark-brown cement with which the 

 egg is stained, is arranged. The ribbing, as before noted, is very coarse 

 and rough, giving the egg the appearance of being constructed of basket- 

 work. The colour is pale sepia-brown, stained and streaked irregularly, 

 but chiefly at the micropylar end, with a dark brown, almost black, 

 cement. The longitudinal ribs run in towards the micropyle, giving 

 a distinctly Noctuid appearance to the top of egg. The cross-section 

 in some instances is almost, if not quite, circular ; in others it 

 appears to have a slightly oval shape. As before stated, the egg 

 appears to be a two-diametered egg, possibly slightly transitional, or, 

 as 1 am inclined to think, slightly retrograde towards an earlier state. 

 [Received from Mr. .T. W. Tutt. Described .July 4th, 1903.]— A. W. 

 Bacot. 



LaphjitjDia e.viijua. — ^Mr. Gervase F. Mathew kindly forwarded me 

 two batches of ova of this species and writes under date October 7th, 1903 : 

 "Two females and one male captured between September 22nd and 25th, 

 have been kept together and fed ever since. The females commenced 

 to lay on the 2nd inst., and a few eggs have been deposited on the 

 muslin cover of their jar every night since. I find one or two batches 

 of eggs deposited on paper, so I send you some of these, as they are 

 covered with down from the parent's body ; the down over those laid 

 on the muslin has, in most cases, been rubbed off by the fluttering 

 moths. I see the male is dead, feut both the females are still alive, 

 though one looks in extrcinis.'"] ■■'■ The ova on the muslin are laid in 

 a loose and somewhat irregular patch containing 28 eggs, many of the 

 eggs are tilted and, in one instance, an egg almost entirely overlies 

 another, but this I fancy owing to the lower egg having been thrust 

 through the network of the leno. A few fine silk threads or hairs are 

 scattered over this batch. The second batch is rather smaller and is 

 laid on paper, this patch is so thickly covered by a loose felt of silk 

 threads or very fine hairs, that the ova themselves are scarcely visible. 

 In colour this felt is of a very pale wainscot-brown, and is of about 

 the texture of fine cotton-wool. It reminds one of the silk that the 

 Tephrosias use to cover their egg-masses (see Dr. Eiding's paper Ent. 

 FleconI, vol. ix., p. 118), but is, I think, less dense (unfortunately I 

 have no material for comparison). I should imagine this wool to consist 

 of silk threads rather than hairs, the fibres are so long, even, and pliant. 

 The ova are bright yellow in colour and very shiny, and their appear- 

 ance is rather unusual for a Noctuid egg, owing to the primitive style 

 of sculpturing. Their shape is, however, fairly typical, though 

 perhaps a trifle flat, the horizontal diameber being rather more than 

 the vertical one. Horizontal diameter about •4mm., height slightly 

 less. The micropyle is neither raised nor depressed, and does not 

 perceptibly break the contour, it is surrounded by an inner and an 

 outer ring of coffin-shaped cell outlines, the inner ring being somewhat 

 faint and looking not unlike the fringe of petals round some flat-topped 



* The second female died October 14th.— G. F. Mathew. 



