7406 Insects. 



and unaccompanied by any personal remarks (which seera to me quite as foreign to 

 the subject as he considers the clouded yellows to our island), whether he has found 

 the eggs of the genus Colias among the seeds of lucerne or clover, and whether he 

 has reared the perfect butterfly therefrom ? The great novelty of Mr. Gregson's dis- 

 covery is tiie persistency of the egg state : in few butterflies yet observed has the egg 

 state been found to last more than ten or twelve days : by what process, either agri- 

 cultural or scieiilitic, was the vitality of the egg thus prolonged ? — Edward Newman.'\ 



Occurrence of Deilephila Galii at Worthing. — Seven specimens of this insect were 

 taken here last autumn : four were bred from larvae taken on Galium verum (bed- 

 straw), near Shoreham. — W. Rickman ; 2, Chapel Road, Worthing, January 12, 1861, 



Observations on the Families Agaristidce and Melameridce. — Mr. Newman's remark 

 (Zool. 7227), that " it is unnatural to divorce Eusemia from Callimorpha and Che- 

 Ionia," is a truth self-evident at first sight, but which admits of some modification on 

 a closer inspection. It has been acknowledged by Herrich-SchisefiFer, and also to some 

 extent, unwittingly, by Mr. Walker in the British Museum ' Catalogue,' several 

 insects there placed in the midst of the Chelonidae belonging truly, I believe, to the 

 Agaristidse. Like many other groups, I believe the Agaristidae will be found to be by 

 no means constant in the form of the antennae, which has hitherto been considered 

 one of their principal characters ; and we shall find some of them possessing the Che- 

 Ionian and some the Noctuidan type of antennae. Their wing-venation approaches 

 closely to that of the Noctuae-Trifidae, and differs in some obvious points from that of 

 the ChelonidtE, to which, however, it is also not very distantly related. In the struc- 

 ture of the head and antennae Agavista, Alypia, Eusemia, &c., remind us of the Rho- 

 palocera, with which, however, they have little else in common ; and in their legs and 

 bodies, as well as the structure of their wings, they are much more nearly allied to the 

 Noctuae, to ?which some of the genera, Eudryas for example, form a complete tran- 

 sition. We thus see how impossible it is to class these singular insects satisfactorily, 

 uniting as they do the characters of groups not usually placed in juxtaposition : 

 I believe, however, that the most natural situation in which they can be placed is in 

 close proximity to the Chelonidae, which they will connect, in a circular arrangement, 

 with the Nocluse-TrifidEB, and also with the Rhopalocera.* In the British Museum 

 table-cases, two years ago, were, and probably siill are, to be found certain Australian 

 insects of the genus Apina, Walk., classed with the Agaristidse, while in the general 

 collection down stairs these insects stand in the midst of the Clielonidae : which is 

 right will no doubt be determined when the transformations are known; but as Apina 

 posseses the wing-venation, and sundry other characteristics of the Agaristidae, I cer- 

 tainly incline to place it with them rather than with the Cbelonidas. In regard to 

 some other insects, such as the curious little North-American Psychomorpha Epime- 

 nis, placed in the British Museum Collection among the Nyctemeridae, we can take 

 surer ground, since not only does it agree in the venation with the Agaristidae, but the 

 transformations and habits, as given by Abbot in the beautiful collection of drawings 

 of North-American insects in the library of the British Museum, fully confirm the 

 inference deduced from the structure of the perfect insect. The larva closely resembles 

 that of Alypia octomaculata, which no one can doubt belongs truly to the Agaristids. 

 Let any one now compare the transformations of Eudryas Unio (Abbot's drawings, 



* The Hypsidae connect, in a similar manner, the Chelonidae with the Noctuae- 

 Quadrifidae. 



