150 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



three raised tufts of deep black scales along the disk ; hind 

 margin sometimes grayish, but various in this resptxt, often 

 oblique from the middle to the tip of the wiug, with irregular 

 markings near the posterior angle : hiud wings dusky. Ex- 

 pands trom 4| to 6^ lines. — C. S. Gregson. 



Entomological Notes and Captures. 



Larval Poison and Parasites of Liparis chrysorrhoea. — 

 Whilst watching a number of the half-grown larvae of L. chry- 

 sorrhoea, which were busily engaged in forming a web to rest 

 on while undergoing a change of skin, my attention was 

 attracted by a curious movement by one of them. It had 

 fixed itself firmly by the anal claspers to the side of the cage, 

 and had bent over until the hairs on the back of the head 

 and second segment touched the scarlet tubercles on the 

 back, and by a side-to-side movement was apparently brushing 

 some moisture from them, they being at the same time pushed 

 out to the extent of half a line. With the assistance of a 

 strong lens I could plainly see that an oily substance was 

 exuding from them, and moistening a small space around. 

 Thinking that most likely this had some connexion with the 

 poisonous properties of this larva, 1 applied a small portion 

 of it, with the point of a needle, to my^ wrist, and was sur- 

 prised to find that I could, by doing so, produce the inflam- 

 matory swellings so well known to all who have handled the 

 larva. Having killed some of them by immersion in spirits 

 of wine, I made a careful dissection of them, and found that 

 at the base of each tubercle was an orange-coloured gland 

 surrounded by powerful muscles (but ivi no way connected 

 with the breathing-apparatus), and filled apparently with an 

 unctuous matter, which gave an acid reaction on litmus- 

 paper, and when applied to the skin produced the results 

 before mentioned. 1 applied other portions of the viscera in 

 the same way, but always with negative results. This con- 

 vinced me that these so-called valvular openings are, in fact, 

 the sources from whence the poisonous fluid is supplied, and 

 with which the hair of the larva is so abundantly anointed. 

 That this family is poisonous above all others has been 

 abundantly demonstrated, but for what purpose I am at 



