398 _ Professor E. B. Poulton on 
conclusions which at present seem to be justified may be 
confirmed or modified.* 2 
The instincts of certain moths with phytophagous larvee 
do not seem to be equally perfect. I have often observed, 
and every student of Lepidoptera must have noticed, that 
the large solitary larve of Sphingide are far more 
frequently found upon small bushes of their food-plant 
than upon large ones. It appeared to me that the 
explanation was to be found in the instincts of the parent 
moth leading her to deposit two or three eggs on each 
bush or tree, irrespective of size. If this were the case, 
the larvee would of course be much easier to find and 
their effect upon the food-plant far more conspicuous upon 
the smallest bushes.. However this may be, the parental 
instinct is certainly lable to error, for such large larve 
may occasionally be found still immature upon a bush so 
small that it has been completely denuded of its leaves. 
II. NEUROPTERA. 
Records of the attacks of predaceous insects are very 
scanty in all Orders except the Diptera and Fossorial 
Hymenoptera. It is hoped, however, that the following 
brief tabular statements will draw attention to the great 
need for a large body of accurate observations. 
Leaving the Hymenoptera to form Part II of this Memoir, 
because of the voluminous literature and the fact that 
Fossors are predaceous in a somewhat peculiar and special 
sense, the remaining Orders are arranged in a succession 
determined by the number of records. The Neuroptera 
follow the Diptera, because the list of examples, although 
short, is longer than that of any except the two chief 
Orders. 
* Compare Professor A. Giard’s observation that the larvae of 
Melanostoma mellinum, L., generally supposed to feed upon Aphides, 
can be reared upon Musca domestica and Chortophila pusilla (Bull. 
Soc. Ent. Fr. 1896, p. 234). Quoted in Verrall’s British Flies, p. 
303 (bottom line) and p. 311 (lines 12-17). 
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