334 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELITMA. 

 By Rev. George Wheeler, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Continued from p. 262.) 



Thk information at my disposal with regard to the earlier 

 stages of this group is so fragmentary that I hardly know whether 

 it is worth offering ; still, so far as it goes, it may help towards 

 the elucidation of some doubtful points. There are but two 

 species with the eggs of which I am acquainted, -parthenie and 

 aurelia. Excellent photographs of them were made by Mr. 

 Tonge from ova laid in captivity which I sent to him. Those of 

 parthenie are very noticeably larger than those of aurelia ; the 

 latter are laid more apart from each other, and consequently 

 retain the regularity of their shape much more fully than the 

 former. Both are somewhat lemon -shaped, the micropylar end 

 being smaller than the base, and have a very slight sculpturing 

 of longitudinal lines. Mr. Tonge also photographed some eggs, 

 obtained by dissection from Reazzino britomartis, but they were 

 so dried up that very little can be made out from them. They 

 are of course of the same general shape, and in size seem to 

 come between the other two ; there appears also to be a greater 

 difference in size between the micropylar and basal ends. 



With regard to the larvse, I should have liked to use Buckler's 

 description of the larva of athalia as a standard of comparison, 

 but as the expressions used for the positions of the spines do not 

 all seem quite suitable, and as moreover the segments are not 

 named in accordance with the usual practice, and one or two 

 other points appear not quite satisfactory, I have modified this 

 description somewhat, and shall call attention to any differences 

 other than those of nomenclature. He says that the full-grown 

 larva is about an inch in length and moderately stout. The head 

 is indented on the crown, widest at the sides near the mouth, 

 and rather flattened in front ; the body is thickly covered with 

 obtuse conical spines to the number of one hundred and thirteen, 

 arranged as follows : there are eleven rows of spines on the first 

 seven abdominal segments, one dorsal, two subdorsal, two supra- 

 spiracular, two sub-spiracular, and four (or two double) ventral. 

 The prothorax, he says, bears only two spines on each side — the 

 two lowest — but this is not, strictly speaking, the case ; only the 

 dorsal is really absent, the remaining six being placed close 

 together in the middle of the segment, but all quite distinctly 

 visible with a lens (these six of course are not included in the 

 total of one hundred and thirteen) ; the dorsal spine is absent on 

 the meso- and metathorax, and on the latter the upper ventral 

 pair are also represented. The eighth abdominal he describes 

 as bearing ten spines, the lateral (i. e. upper ventral) pair being 

 absent and the dorsal being doubled, one being placed in front of 



