308 Mr. Poulton's notes in 1886 



examination of the ovum from above, and at such a time 

 it exactly presents the appearance described in my last 

 year's notes. Furthermore, the head is not black and 

 shining at any other larval stage, so that my mistake 

 was very natural. The position of the young larva 



Fig. 3. 



relatively to the egg-shell is shown in fig. 3 ; at the stage 

 of growth which is represented the head is just outside 

 the shell, and separated from it by one or two of the 

 thoracic segments. It can be readily imagined that 

 when the head is alone seen between the valves of the 

 shell, which it exactly resembles in colour, the whole 

 suggests an egg-covering marked by sutural lines. The 

 harmony in colour is doubtless protective, for it renders 

 the young larva indistinguishable from the egg during 

 the earliest period of growth. The head is seen in the 

 figure to be relatively large and well-developed ; it is 

 probable that a minute examination may show more 

 distinct traces of the sense-organs and other structural 

 features than in the later stages, and it is to be expected 

 that these external hymenopterous parasites will preserve 

 clearer indications of the ancestral non -parasitic forms 

 from which they have been derived than those which are 

 presented by the more degenerate ento-parasitic species. 

 Now that I have the material I hope to investigate the 

 structure of Paniscus larvse by means of sections. 



8. A SPECIAL POINT IN THE PROTECTIVE ATTITUDE OF 



the imago of Gonoptera LiBATRix. — The shape and 

 colour of this moth forcibly suggest the appearance of a 

 red leaf spotted with a few white bosses of fungoid 



