262 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
ornithologists may be excused for hesitating to accept, seeing 
how very brittle are the eggs to which they have devoted 
their best attention. This faculty of growth in the egg-state 
was known to Linnzus, and has been recorded by all subse- 
quent writers on this tribe of insects. To criticise or contra- 
dict observers so careful as Professor Peck and Dr. Harris is 
out of the question; but there is one point in which I differ 
from these most observant and accurate entomologists. Both 
Peck and Harris either state, or lead us to infer, that the egg 
is laid and that the larva feeds on the wnder side of the leaf. 
My own experience is exactly the reverse of this, and agrees 
with that of the Rev. Charles Bethune, as given at p. 51 of 
his ‘Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario,’ 
which I have lately received through the courtesy of my kind 
friend Mr. Reeks, of Thruxton. My experience agrees with 
Mr. Bethune’s; | find the larve on the wpper side of the leaf. 
This want of accord may probably arise from there being 
several species confounded under one name, and three of 
them I had named provisionally after the trees on which I 
found the slug feeding :—Blennocampa Cerasi on the cherry, 
B. Pruni on the plum or sloe, and B. Pyri on the pear. I 
find, however, that I am unable to differentiate these in a 
manner likely to find acceptance with entomologists. I 
therefore prefer adopting “ Authiops” as a specific name for 
all our slug-worms, at the same time expressing a feeling of 
some regret that the word “ nigger,” the literal translation of 
AXthiops, should have been applied to the sawfly of the 
“turnip,—a very different insect, and one of which a complete 
life-history has already been given in the ‘ Entomologist.’ | 
Another question of some interest, as regards the geographical 
distribution of insects, arises as to the identity of the slug- 
worms of Europe and America. There is, however, no 
necessity to introduce this difficulty to the reader, unless it be 
to say that the three are so similar that I am unable to 
separate them. 
To proceed with our life-history of the one which feeds on 
the pear-tree. The eggs continue to grow during thirteen days; 
at first slowly, towards the end of that period more rapidly. 
On the fourteenth day, according to Professor Peck, the 
young grub emerges from the egg. I have no doubt this 
Statement is correct as regards the United States, but I 
