118 ' THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



In my opinion, at least, it will be necessary to have much more 

 direct refutation of DeGeer, Hellins, and Parfitt than the ob- 

 servations of even Fabre on s^Decies of another subfamily. 



With regard to Fabre' s asseveration that he never once found 

 a female " Pentatoma " stationary near the eggs, this is circum- 

 stantially contradicted by the precise observations of Hellins and 

 Parfitt in Elasmostethus. Neither has the French author proved 

 his theory, upon which he establishes so large a part of his 

 assumptions, that the Pentatomidae (or at least some of them) 

 oviposit in more than one place. It is to be regretted that he did 

 not examine the oviducts of one of the females observed by him. 

 Moreover, it does not appear that Fabre marked any of the 

 female Pentatominse observed by him, so as to recognize them in 

 the event of any "chance" returns to the original spot. Fabre 

 also says, " a Pentatoma smaller than the grey bug has given 

 me in a single batch more than one hundred eggs," and insists 

 therefore that DeGeer's record of twenty in the grey bug could 

 have been only a partial laying! ! 



This confines the subject entirely to the Rhynchota ; now we 

 have also, as noted above at the beginning of this paper, records 

 of the devotion of the mother earwig (and of more species than 

 one), records as well authenticated as such could well be, not 

 only in written literature, but from living observers who have 

 not considered it worth while to register what has always ap- 

 peared as a thoroughly firmly founded fact. The occurrence in 

 Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa seems also authentic, while the recent 

 confirmation byFroggatt, after seventy years' interval, of Lewis's 

 observations on Perga lewisii establishes this remarkable case 

 beyond doubt, and it is especially interesting to note that in 

 other Australian species of the same genus entirely different 

 larval habits are known to obtain ; the latter is another argu- 

 ment against Fabre. What is there of incredibility in the whole 

 recital ? What a limited demonstration of affection, or at least 

 of intelligent power, compared with that displayed by the social 

 Hymenoptera and Neuroptera ! Fabre argues as if parental 

 solicitude and the sense of direction were unknown among the 

 Insecta, and his sneer at the inadequacy of the memory of the 

 mother-bug to rediscover the original place of oviposition is 

 remarkable enough from the historian of the habits of the 

 Hymenoptera. 



To conclude, Fabre may prove to be right, and Goedaert, 

 Frisch, Modeer, DeGeer, Kirby and Spence, Rennie, Montrouzier, 

 Boitard, Lewis, Parfitt, Hellins, Camerano, Froggatt, and Bing- 

 ham, all, to a man, wrong ; but even if so, Fabre has proved 

 nothing at present beyond the fact that the females of two or 

 three species of Pentatominae, not particularly closely observed 

 by previous authors, did not manifest any regard for their pro- 

 geny during his observations. It is perhaps not the " good 



