PEOCEEDINUS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



mate period occupied by each stage in tlie development of the insect in- 

 two cases. 



Thus the adult condition is reached in about a month's time from the 

 date of egg-laying. 



The sexes. — There is a good deal of individual variation in the adults', 

 nor can males and females be easily distinguished by any definite colour 

 markings. The male is generally smaller in size and has, so far as I have 

 observed, a more pronounced colouration. In a number of specimens 

 of the adults examined I found that the bluish-black spots on the ventral 

 side of the abdomen are generally more in number in the females than in 

 the males. 



One very interesting thing about this bug is that it is an annual 

 visitor to the locality, coming about May and disappearing in July. 

 For the rest of the year I have never found a single specimen anywhere 

 in the vicinity of the College. And the season between May-June is 

 the shooting and fruiting season of the food plant Trema. 



64.— NOTES ON THE LIFE-fflSTORY OF POLYPTYCHUS DEN- 

 TATUS. 



By T. V. Ramakeishna Ayyar, B.A., F.E.S., F.Z.S., Acting Government 

 Entomologist, Madras. 



(Plate 143.) 

 Rothscliild and Jordan in their classical memoir on the Sphingidae. of 

 the AVorld record only two species of the genus Polyptyclnis as found in 

 India, the rest of the species, about thirty in number, being recorded as 

 African. Of the two P. dentatits is the subj ect of this paper. Although 

 there are two or three previous references to this insect, whatever is on 

 record regarding the earlier stages of this insect is very meagre and 

 imperfect. He'arsey has devoted a couple of lines to the larva of this 

 insect as found at Barrackpiu: and he calls it Smerinthus denticulalus 

 in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society (1864) Vol. Ill, p. 100. 

 Forsayeth in his paper on the Lepidoptera of Mhow in the Transactions 

 of the Entomological Society for 1S84, p. 395, refers to this insect and gives 

 a very brief and meagre description of a fairly well-grown larva. These 



