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XIV. On the egg-cases and early stages of some South China 
Cassidide. By J.C. KERsHAw and FREDERICK Muir. 
[Read March 20th, 1907.] 
THE four beetles mentioned in the following paper are all 
common in Macao. As their egg-cases or larve have not 
been previously figured or described, the following short 
description of the plate may be of interest to Coleopterists. 
Dr. David Sharp has kindly identified them for us, 
1.—Coptocycla circumdata, Herbst. 
The eggs of this species are laid singly, generally on the 
under-side of the leaf of its food-plant, a species of Zpomea. 
The egg, attached to a membrane similar in shape and 
texture to the egg-membrane of Aspidomorpha puncticosta, 
is fixed to the leaf, and the lower part of the membrane is 
turned back over the egg and pressed down. The edges of 
the membrane adhere to the surface of the leaf, and the 
shape and green colour of the egg can be distinctly seen 
through it. A double keel runs down the centre of the 
membrane, giving the egg-case the appearance of a double- 
keeled boat turned over. 
An examination of the lower oothecal plate shows 
that the thickening of the membrane forming the double 
keel corresponds to two indentations on the posterior 
edge of the plate. In Sasipta stolida the V-shaped 
membrane with a central keel, and in A. puneticosta the 
thickening of the lateral edges, corresponds to the shape 
of the oothecal plates ; the thickening of the lateral edges 
of the latter being due to the oothecal plates not quite 
meeting at this point. 
For these reasons we consider that the shape of the 
membranes of a Cassidid egg-case is determined by the 
shape of the oothecal plate. 
Sometimes in captivity a second egg is laid overlapping 
the side of the first. The egg-case 1s never covered with 
excremental matter. 
This species carries its cast skins during its larval and 
pupal life on a pair of long posterior spikes, in a similar 
manner to 4. puncticosta, and does not attach any excre- 
mental matter to them, thus falling into the same series 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1907.—PART Il (SEPT.) 
