114 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



tinuous care. A summary of the former will be found in Sharp 

 [24], p. 111. Of the latter there is one instance, viz. Perc/a 

 leivisii, "VVestwood, a Tasmanian sawfly. The habits of this 

 Tenthredinid were related [16 and 17] by R. H. Lewis, who in- 

 forms us that the eggs, in number about eighty, are placed trans- 

 versely in a longitudinal incision between the two surfaces of a 

 leaf of a species of Eucali/ptus. On this leaf the mother sits till 

 the eggs are hatched. She follows the larvae, " sitting with out- 

 stretched legs over her brood, preserving them from the heat of 

 the sun, and protecting them from the attacks of parasites and 

 other enemies." It should be noted, however, that broods acci- 

 dentally or purposely deprived of the mother appeared to thrive 

 just as well. These observations have been briefly confirmed by 

 Froggatt [7 J. 



In the Coleoptera, the only instances known to me occur in 

 the Scolytidae, among the Ambrosia beetles, and a consideration 

 of these scarcely comes within the scope of this notice, since they 

 are not non-social insects. The reader may be referred to Kirby 

 and Spence [14] and Hubbard [25] . 



My. R. South and Mr. L. B. Prout are not aware of any in- 

 stance among the Lepidoptera, and similar advice has been 

 given me by Mr. G. H. Verrall and Mr. J. E. Collin of the 

 Diptera, and by Mr. W. J. Lucas of the Neuroptera. Research 

 on the literature of the Thysanoptera, Anoplura, Thysanura, &c., 

 has failed to trace any such records. 



I must here also express my thanks to Messrs. W. F. H. Bland- 

 ford, C. 0. Waterhouse, C. J. Gahan, W. F. Kirby, and Drs. G. 

 Breddin and D. Sharp, for information and hints. 



Rhynchota. 



The earliest Rhynchotal notice is that of Modeer [18] . In 

 speaking of " Cimex ovatus pallide griseiis," he distinctly affirms 

 that the eggs are laid in June on the common birch, in num- 

 ber from forty to fifty, so that the mother can cover them when 

 she sits over them. She does not abandon them except for brief 

 refreshment, and cannot be removed except by superior force. 

 The eggs are hatched at the end of June, and the maternal care 

 is still exercised, for she protects them against the male, whose 

 attacks and the defence of the mother are circumstantially 

 related. The great De Geer [8] confirms and expands the 

 observations under the head of Cimex betulce (he gives C. griseus, 

 Linne, as a synonym !). Boitard [2] , in his ' Curiosit6s d'His- 

 toire naturelle' — a work unknown to me — embellishes these 

 accounts, according to Fabre [5] , by noting that when it rains 

 the mother leads her young under a leaf or under the fork of a 

 branch to shelter them, and covers them with her wings. Mont- 

 rouzier [19] observed the habits of Oceanian Scutellerinae, a sub- 

 family not closely allied to the Acanthosomatinae (in which the 



