LACHNEIS. 499 



and from Cnethocampa by their comparatively greater length and 

 straightness ; and the females from those of the former genus by the 

 downy mass at the apex of the abdomen, and from those of the latter 

 by the superior bulk of their body and tenuity of their antennae. 

 Larvae gregarious, inhabiting a general nest, which they enlarge from 

 time to time, leaving it during the night in search of food, but 

 returning before morning, and finally quitting it when they are about 

 to undergo their change, which they effect on the surface of the 

 ground in an oval rigid cocoon ; eggs deposited in an irregular mass 

 on slender branches, and covered by a cinereous down." Since 

 Aurivillius includes Lachneis and Autosphyla in his genus Eriogaster, 

 his diagnosis of the latter is, from our point of view, that of the tribe 

 Lachneidi. It reads as follows : 



Imago. — <? antennae, strongly pectinated; ? , antennae with short (in lienkei), or 

 very short (catax, rimicola, &c), pectinations, oronly weakly serrated (lanestris). Abdo- 

 men at end with a large woolly anal tuft, with the hairs of which the hibernating 

 eggs are covered. Larva. — The larva has dorsally on each segment two areas of 

 densely pressed-together (red-yellow) "felt-hairs." These groups of felt-hairs are 

 very small in rimicola, of moderate size in lanestris and neogena, and very large in 

 everia and acanthophylli. Head black and hairy. Claspers yellow-red to brown- 

 yellow. Pupa. — Very stumpy, thin-shelled, honey-yellow to brown-yellow, in a 

 thin (lienkei, acanthophylli), or thicker, parchment-like, ellipsoid cocoon, with (at 

 any rate in lanestris, catax and rimicola) a special " Athemloch " arranged by the 

 larva, and a round emergence-lid. 



The peculiarity of egg-laying, by which the eggs are thickly covered 

 with hairs from the anal tuft, and the characteristic " eggar " cocoon 

 appear to be common to all the species. Konsin notes (Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 France, 1846, p. xxvii) having found two pupae of Lachneis everia in 

 the same cocoon, a rather common habit in L. lanestris. The pupae 

 themselves, also (as well as the cocoons) are more closely allied to those 

 of Pachygastria and Lasiocampa than to any other of the Palaearctic 

 Lachneids, and one suspects that the Lachneidi and Pachygastriidi are 

 really more directly allied than is the former to Malacosoma, Macro- 

 thylacia, or even Trichiura. As there is only one British species in 

 the tribe its peculiarities will be better dealt with at length in our 

 description of the insect. 



Genus : Lachneis, Hiibner. 

 Synonymy. — Genus: Lachneis, Hb., "Tent.," p. 1(1806); Kirby, "Cat.," p. 

 832 (1892) ; Dyar, " Can. Ent.,"xxx., pp. 4, 6 (1898); "Ent. Rec," xi., pp. 141-142 

 (1899); Grote, " Illus. Zeits. fur Ent.," iii., p. 71 (1898). Bombyx, Linn., 

 " Sys. Nat.," 10th ed., i., p. 499, no. 15 (1758) ; 12th ed., p. 815, no. 28 (1767) ; 

 "Faun. Suec," p. 292, no. 1105 (1761) ; Fab., " Sys. Ent.," p. 566, no. 37 (1775) ; 

 " Spec. Ins.," ii., p. 179, no. 53 (1781) ; " Mant.," ii., p. 113, no. 61 (1787) ; "Ent. 

 Sys.," iii., p. 429, no. 68 (1793) ; Wilkes, " Nat. Hist.," pi. liii (1773) ; Schiff., " Sys. 

 Verz.," p. 57, L, no. 2 (1776) ; Esp., " Schmett. Eur.," iii., p. 93 (1783); View., " Tab. 

 Verz.," L, p. 36, no. 14 (1789) ; Brahm, " Ins. Kal.," p. 288, no. 179 ; p. 544, 

 no. 405 (1790); Bork., " Sys. Besch.," iii., p. 123, no. 33 (1790); "Bhein. Mag.," i., 

 p. 366 (1793); Donov., "Nat. Hist. Brit. Ins.," vi., p. 73 (1797); Hb., "Eur. Schmett.," 

 iii., p. 143 (? 1800); Schrank, " Fauna Boica," ii., Abth. 1, p. 278 (1801); Haw., " Lep. 

 Brit.," p. 124 (1803); Godt., "Hist. Nat.," iv., p. 108 (1822); Bdv., " Gen. et Ind.," p. 

 69 (1840); Frr., "Neu. Beit.," vi., p. 179 (1852); Snell., "De Vlind.," p. 188 (1867); 

 Nolck., "Lep.Fn. Est.," p. 127 (1868); Staud., " Cat.," 2nded., p. 68 (1871); " Rom. 

 Mem.," vi., p. 314 (1892) ; Curo, " Bull. Soc. Ent. It.," viii., p. 149 (1876) ; Mill., 

 "Iconog.," iii., p. 285 (1877) ; Lampa, " Ent. Tids.," vi., p, 41 (1885); Fall., "Bull. 

 Soc. Ent. Fr.," (6), x.,p. xlvii (1890); Riihl, " Soc. Ent.," v., p. 170 (1891); Carad., 

 "Iris," viii., p. 91 (1895) ; Reutti, "Lep. Bad.," 2nd ed., p. 57 (1898). Phalaena, 

 Scop., "Ent. Cam.," p. 199 (1763) ; Mull., " Faun. Frid.," p. 39, no. 352 (1764) ; 

 "Zool. Dan. Prod.," p. 117 (1776); Fuess., "Mag. Ent.," i., p. 270 (1778); "Neu. 



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