158 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



that the eggs are extruded united together in a string 

 attached to the tail of the female. I should have expected 

 this. Again, the larva has gills, and lives freely in water. I 

 should have supposed so, I have taken the liberty to 

 italicise these passages in my quotation, as I think them of 

 importance ; but I must observe that they are not thus 

 distinguished in the original. 



Two points yet remain to be noticed. 1st. That Mr. 

 Dunning, after a thorough investigation of the situation of 

 Acentropus among the Lepidoptera, decides in placing it in 

 the Pyralites. He says : — 



" The aquatic habit of the insect, the mode of life, and the 

 metamorphoses, are so plainly indicative of aflSnity to 

 Hydrocampa, that I willingly go with the current of recent 

 opinion, and recognize the true place of the Acentropidae to 

 be where Staudinger and Wocke have placed them, that is to 

 say, in the Pyralidina, leading up to the Chelonidse and the 

 Crambidse." 



This seems rather accepting the prevailing opinion of 

 lepidopterists than broaching a new one, and it is in this 

 character that Mr. Dunning publishes his views of the 

 affinities of Acentropus ; he does not hint that it is new. 



2nd. Mr. Dunning admits but one species of Acentropus. 

 He concludes thus : — 



" Nolcken himself, to whom we are indebted for the 

 greatest amount of subdivision, admits that amongst the 

 males of all the forms reported to be A. niveus, he could not 

 find any trustworthy differences. In the case of forms so 

 nearly allied, I think the onus prohnndi ought to lie upon 

 those who. assert their specific distinctness. And believing 

 that, by simply asking an abstract question, I am less likely 

 to provoke investigation and discussion, than by expressing 

 an opinion which can be contradicted and disproved, I will 

 conclude by expressing an opinion, — to which I am not 

 wedded, and from which I shall be glad to be converted, 

 but still an opinion founded on such evidence as I have been 

 able to obtain, — namely, that all the forms of Acentropus 

 heretofore attempted to be distinguished are, in fact, referable 

 to one and the same species, for which, in the present state 

 of our knowledge, I shall retain the name that is in vogue, — 

 Acentropus niveus." 



Edward Newman. 



