300 Mr. Poulton's notes in 1886 



possesses a peculiar and penetrating odour. These 

 glands are, in the case of L. chrysorrhcea, alluded to by 

 Duponchel, quoted in Stainton's ' Manual,' "A reddish 

 tubercle on the back of each of the 11th and 12th 

 segments." In this description the segments are wrongly 

 numbered ; they should be 10th and 11th. Newman, 

 in 'British Moths,' alludes to the glands in both L. 

 chrysorrhcea and L. auriflua: "The tenth and eleventh 

 segments have a circular, wax-like, cup-shaped, scarlet 

 spot on the very middle of the back." They are also 

 described, in L. auriflua, as glands by Mr. A. H. Swinton 

 in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of 

 London, who wrongly implies that their secretion is of 

 value in providing a poison for the irritant hairs of the 

 species. The glands are purely odoriferous, and have no 

 means of discharging their fluid contents on to the 

 hairs. Furthermore, it is probable that the hairs in 

 this species are merely mechanical irritants : they 

 are equally effectual for a long time after they have 

 been shed by the larva, as I know from the experience 

 of pulling to pieces an old cocoon in which the hairs 

 were interwoven. 



@. In the Liparidce generally. — Finding the glands in 

 Liparis, I examined the larva of Orgyia antiqua, and 

 found similar structures in the same position. Last 

 year I described a single gland on the 7th abdominal 

 segment of Dasychira (Orgyia) pudibanda, evidently 

 corresponding to the posterior of the two in the former 

 species. I therefore asked Lord Walsingham to allow 

 me to look through the preserved larvae of Liparidce in 

 his collection. Lord Walsingham kindly allowed me to 

 examine the larvae, and greatly helped me in the search. 

 All the Liparidce were found to possess the glands, 

 except the genus Demas, in which I could not detect 

 them. Two glands occurred in all the larvae of the 

 other genera, except in Dasychira (for D. fascelina 

 resembled D. pudibunda in only possessing the posterior 

 gland). The glands were minute in Psilura (Lymantria) 

 monacha, and small in Hypogymna dispar, while they 

 resembled those of L. auriflua in all other British 

 species. Examining some species of Indian Liparidce, 

 the two glands were found in Lymantria concolor (Walker), 

 and where they were small and resembled those of our 

 own P. monacha, to which the species is evidently closely 



