TRANSACTIONS 



ENT0M0L0GI(3AL SOCIETY 



OF 



LONDON 



For the Year 1904. 



I. On the egg-cases and early stages of some Cassididse. 

 By Frederick Mum, F.E.S., and Dr. Da.vid Sharp, 

 M.A , F.R.S., etc. 



[Read Oct. 7tli, 1903.] 



Plates I, II, III, IV, and V. 



The egg-cases described below have all been discovered 

 by Mr. Muir in S. Africa. In the course of working at 

 the mode of their formation he has also become acquainted 

 with the larva^, and as these are of a highly remarkable 

 character we have concluded that an illustrated account of 

 them would be acceptable to entomologists, as an addition 

 to our account of the oothecas. One new species is 

 described on p. 13. 



Although the eggs of insects are in many instances of 

 a very beautiful and elaborate character, it is only in a few 

 exceptional forms that oothecas or egg-cases are used. 

 The best known examples of these structures are found 

 among Orthoptera, in the Mantidse and Blattidae. The 

 German naturalist Verhoeff has recently formed these 

 two families into a separate Order, and has named it 

 Oothecaria. 



Until attention was called to these Coleopterous oothecas 

 by exhibition of some of Mr. Muir's specimens at a meet- 

 ing of the Entomological Society of London it was not 

 known that such structures existed in Cassididse. In the 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1904. — PART I. (APRIL) 1 



