270, THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The genus Plaxia will, I think, have to be restricted to its 

 type P. macarea. The species figured by Felder under the name 

 of Apistis (Argidia) mormon is, in my opinion, a New World 

 representative of the genus Emmonodia, with which it corresponds 

 in general pattern, the coloration of the body, and in the 

 structure of the legs ; the densely hairy hind legs are very 

 similar to those of Emmonodia jnidens, but quite unlike the legs 

 of A2}istis and allied genera ; the antennae are pectinated in the 

 male, and the palpi are markedly longer than in Emmonodia, so 

 that it will have to be a distinct genus. 



In the so-called families Amphigoniidse and Focillidae there 

 are various distinct types belonging to the Dysgoniidae, Therme- 

 siidfB, and Hypenidae respectively, whilst the following are allied 

 to Iscliyja and Platyja. 



Phagytra, Walk. =■ Masca, Walk. 

 Placed by Walker in the heterogeneous group Platydidae. 

 The typical species P. leucogastralis is widely distributed, our 

 examples having been received from Java and Ceram. The type 

 of M. abactalis is from Singapore. 



(3?o be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Note on the Earlier Larval Life of Stauropus fagi. — Thanks 

 to Mr. Barnes, of Reading, who most kindly sent me a living female 

 of Stauropus fcuji (of the melanic type), which he had found on May 

 20th in the birch-woods in his district, I have been enabled to closely 

 study the earlier life of this larva. 



I kept the moth alive for seven days, during which time she 

 deposited a few ova each night: these were scattered on some oak- 

 leaves I had placed in with her. All told, she produced for me forty 

 eggs ; and she was then quite exhausted, so that doubtless she had 

 previously deposited a good many ova. The last six laid proved 

 infertile, or so weak that, although they changed colour, they failed to 

 hatch. The eggs when first laid are of a pale cream-colour, in shape 

 hemispherical, fattened beneath. About the seventh day a circular 

 depression and a dark spot appear, and gradually a dull purple colour 

 pervades the whole area. On the tenth day the larvae hatch out. The 

 larvfe when first they leave the shell appear unusually large ; this is 

 partly on account of the very curiously long legs and the two caudal 

 appendages, which are ever nervously twisting about. The young 

 larvae most carefully keep guard over their own egg-shell, which is to 

 them an all-important item, as this provides them with their first 

 meal — their first and the only food they take for seven days, in fact for 

 a longer period, as it is not until after moulting their first skin that 

 they eat any other food. This fact I proved over and over again, as, 

 being an invalid, my time was quite free to watch them hour after hour 



