UHTICATING PROPERTIES Or LEPIDOPTERA. 41 



for comparison with those in the National Collection. "What 

 I take to be mole-crickets were found in the classic regions 

 of the Pnyx. 



I have two small specimens of the larva of a Mantis belonging 

 possibly to the genus Eremiaphila, and bearing out its title in 

 its natural habitat, as it was scarcely distinguishable in hue 

 from the desert sand of Gebel Hashab, where I discovered it on 

 the 32nd of March. 



Lastly, the mention of a remarkable-looking insect, Calli- 

 7nemis oniscus, must not be omitted. It is a wingless locust that 

 keeps up an incessant and shrill chirp, in the underwood of 

 myrtle and cistus, &c., on either side of the roads to Laurium 

 and Marathon. As it hushes its strain when approached, it is 

 not always easy to detect its presence, more particularly as its 

 ground colour is a bright apple-green, traversed by numerous 

 horizontal bars of black across the body. This beautiful colour- 

 ing, however, is turned to brown after its inevitable consignment 

 to a wide-mouthed phial of spirits. It no doubt derives its 

 specific name of ovio-^os-, " the little ass," in consequence of its 

 similarity, from a dorsal point of view, to that beast of burden. 



(To be continued.) 



URTICATING PROPERTIES OF LEPIDOPTERA. 



I HAD hoped that my note of inquiry on this subject (Entom. 

 xvii. 256) would have elicited something more definite as to the 

 cause of urtication than it has done. But at any rate the corres- 

 pondence it has provoked has incontestibly proved one fact, viz., 

 ihsit Porthesia similis and P, chrysorrhcea are capable of producing 

 urticaria in all stages of their development. No doubt the same 

 may be said with equal truth of other species which have hairy 

 larvse, and I think it is quite as certain that the poisonous property 

 (whatever it is) can reach the face, &c., without the assistance of 



the hands. 



In my former communication I purposely refrained from 

 advancing any theory of my own, my purpose being rather to 

 draw forth information from others who I hoped to find had 

 studied the subject. I may now say that my opinion at the 



ENTOM. — FEB., 1885. <3- 



