( 177 ) 



VIII. On the matrivorous habit of the species of Hetero- 

 gynis, Rmbr. By T. A. Chapman, M.D., F.Z.S. 



[Bead February 1st, 1905.] 



In presenting these notes in extension of my previous 

 papers on Heterogynis, Rmbr., the regret, I must acknow- 

 ledge, in having to correct an error I had fallen into but 

 slightly modifies the satisfaction I have in having at 

 length made certain observations, which I ought no doubt 

 to have made before, and in fact narrowly escaped making. 

 The satisfaction results not so much from the somewhat 

 remarkable nature of the observations themselves, as from 

 the circumstance that they appear to explain the object to 

 be attained by, and therefore the forces in action that 

 evolved, the very anomalous specialization of the female 

 imago in this genus, and relieves us from having to regard 

 them as isolated and inexplicable phenomena. 



In my paper on H. paradoxa in the Transactions of the 

 Society, 1902, pp. 717-718, I said that the young larva? of 

 that species " hibernate by spinning a small cocoon in 

 some crevice of the food-plant or elsewhere. H. paradoxa 

 does this, I find, in the second instar ; Mr. Fletcher found 

 H. penella did so in the third. Whether there is here a 

 real specific distinction I cannot say, or whether there may 

 be an error of observation on my part, or Mr. Fletcher's. 

 The newly-hatched larva of H. penella is certainly much 

 smaller than that of H. paradoxal Again, p. 726, 1 wrote, 

 " The newly-hatched larva? present very important differ- 

 ences that have perhaps more specific value than any 

 others." I then proceed to describe certain differences in 

 the possession of stellate hairs by paradoxa which are not 

 to be found in H. penella until the second instar. 



This year I met with H. paradoxa at La Granja ; I was 

 too late for larvae or moths, but found cocoons, from some 

 of which the larva? had already hatched, from others of 

 which they emerged after I took them. Perchance the 

 want of the more interesting stages made me attend more 

 closely to the material I had. The result of my observa- 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1905. — PART I. (MAY) 12 



