THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 
All nomenclature is but a means to the end of increasing our know- 
ledge of the organisms themselves, and for this, unchangeability of names 
is the first requisite. Whatever the strict law of priority theoretically 
should accomplish, we have seen but the beginning of the permanent 
confusion in which its practice results, and which its continuance as the 
fundamental law will hand down to the remotest generation ; each inexact 
description, as published, adding new material to increase the complexity 
of the tangled web of names. 
NOTES ON HYPERCHIRIA IO (Farr.) 
BY C. V. RILEY, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
I have obtained many egg-masses of this species the present season 
and have had them deposited by moths reared in-confinement. Even in 
a state of nature they are deposited quite irregularly, some fastened on 
one of the compressed sides, some piled on top of others, but most of 
them on the small end as in the closely allied AZaza. The average length 
is 0.07, largest width 0.05, and greatest thickness 0.03 inch. They are 
compressed on two sides, and flattened at the apex, the attached end 
smallest. When first deposited they are pure cream color, with a trans- 
lucent yellow spot on the flattened apex. Toward maturity the colour 
changes to a more intense white with a faint lilaceous tint; the yellow 
spot at apex becomes mostly black and the compressed sides are more or 
less translucent, especially the upper half, through which the yellow of the 
enclosed larva and some of the darker spines may easily be seen just 
before the hatching period. Mr. Lintner’s description as “ elliptical, 
somewhat flattened,” and Mr. Minot’s “ top-shaped” are neither, strictly 
true, and would hardly enable one to distinguish this egg from many 
others ; while my own description is not as ample as it should be. Hence 
these notes. ‘The larval changes are given in my 5th Report (p. 135.) 
The spines of the larva in the first stage are too weak and pliant to enter 
the most tender skin; and the urticating property is only ascertainable 
after the first moult. 
