Mr. A. G. Pmtler on the Opliidercs princeps ofGmn6e, 375 



larva of Acronycta hastuh'fera, A. & S., many of tlic barbed 

 -Sairs forming the black pinicils are flattened at the end and 

 black, but not striated. 



These specialized and highly differentiated dark scale-like 

 setai appear to be of use in rendering the dorsal tufts moi-e 

 conspicuous, the caterpillars being very hairy, and thus 

 probably inedible by birds. It should be observed that the 

 larva of Gasfroj)ac/ia americanoj in which the dorsal tubercles 

 and the scales are much smaller than in the European (r. 

 querci'/blia, is rendered at least equally conspicuous by the 

 two transverse bright scarlet bands disclosed behind the second 

 and third thoracic segments when the insect is creeping. 

 These ajipear to be entirely wanting in the European species. 



Finally, the occurrence of these scales, so much like those 

 of adult Lej)idoptera, is an interesting example of the accelera- 

 tion of development of the setai in the larval stage, and it is 

 not improbable that in the ancestors of certain of the Lasio- 

 campidffi they were characters acquired during the later stages 

 of their larval lifetime. 



Trovidence, R. I., U. S. A. 



LV — On the Ophideres princeps of Ouenee and its ntter 

 dissimilarity/ in Structure and Pattern from the Ophideres 

 princeps of Boisduval. By Aethur G. Butler, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c. 



In the * Voyage of the ' Astrolabe ' ' (Lepidopt^res, p. 245) 

 M. Boisduval described a moth from Dorey, New Guinea, 

 under the name of Ophideres princeps; he characterized it 

 as allied to 0. maferna, Cramer, and as having " the front 

 wings blackish, slightly clouded, dusted with black and a 

 little varied with greenish, with four white spots, grouped in 

 pairs ; the lower wings yellow with a kidney-shaped patch 

 and a black border, and the fringe intersected with whitish." 

 This is probably one of the innumerable varieties of the wide- 

 ranging O.fullonica. 



In the third volume of his ' Noctu^lites ' M. Guen^e 

 describes and figures a West-African species (with M. Bois- 

 duval's locality) as 0. princeps — evidently without taking 

 the trouble to look up the description in the ' Voyage of the 

 ' Astrolabe,' ' with which the African species hardly corre- 

 sponds in a single particular, inasmuch as the front wings, 



28* 



