306 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Tutt also quotes) is wrong in stating he only noted "five instars," 

 as possibly his larvse may perhaps have moulted only four times 

 under perhaps different conditions in which they were kept. I 

 merely wish to point out the fact that my L. acis passed through 

 six separate stages, i.e. they moulted five times. It must be 

 borne in mind that larvse of several of the Lycaenidfe, during 

 their earlier stages, feed on flowers, &c., and are then frequently 

 hidden from view, which makes it no easy matter to detect the 

 changes taking place within. This evidently led former authors 

 into error respecting the young larvae of L. arion, who stated 

 that the larva refuses wild thyme as its food after its first 

 moult, whereas it is not until after its third moult that it 

 discontinues to feed on thyme. 



As Mr. Merrifield pointed out in his interesting lecture 

 delivered at Brussels this year, during the visit of the Entomo- 

 logical Congress to that city, the number of moults a larva 

 undergoes may vary according to the brood. The larvse of the 

 summer brood of several species undergo fewer moults than 

 those turning to pupse which hybernate. By missing a moult 

 the larva develops more rapidly, and the perfect insect is then 

 able to lay the eggs for the hybernating brood in good time for 

 the resulting larvse to feed up in the late summer and autumn. 

 I do not claim that this fact explains the discrepancy between 

 Dr. Chapman's observations and my own, but it is a point ento- 

 mologists should bear in mind when criticising life-histories 

 which are the work of two different observers. 



I may add, however, that in my experience I have never 

 found a species to vary in the number of moults, in those carefully 

 worked through. 



A NOTE ON THE NEW CLASSIFICATION OF CEETAIN 

 HESPERIID BUTTERFLIES. 



By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



We have received the ' Bulletin de la Societe lepidoptero- 

 logique de Geneve ' (fasc. i., June, 1910) containing Dr. J. L. 

 Reverdin's " Note on the Male Genital Armature of several 

 Palaearctic Hesperiids," illustrated by one coloured and two 

 photographic plates. At the same tinie comes a welcome further 

 instalment of M. Charles Oberthiir's 'Etudes de Lepidopterologie 

 Comparee,' fasc. iv., 1910, containing, among others, no less than 

 four coloured plates, almost wholly devoted to the same exces- 

 sively difficult group. In both instances the coloured plates 

 have been executed by M. J. Culot, of the Geneva Society, and 

 for accuracy excel anything that we have yet seen upon this 

 particular subject. In both cases the authors have co-operated 

 with results which will be found eminently satisfactory. 



