MALACOSOMA CASTEENSIS. 535 



brown, only rarely mixed with yellow ; the hind wings deep brown. The females 

 agree with the males ; the body and wings above and beneath deep brown, only the 

 median band of the forewings is narrowly margined with yellow ; they run from 

 42mm. -46mm., whilst the type only measures 34mm. -39mm. (Standfuss). 



Standfuss received from Penzig, June 9th, 1882, 50 pupae collected 

 in the neighbourhood of Venice, imagines from which commenced to 

 emerge the day he received them. They were evidently a form of 21. 

 castrensis but differed greatly from the type in size and colour, and also 

 varied so much inter se that he considered it advisable to describe the 

 two forms veneta and hilleri. 



y. var. (et ab.) hilleri, Standf ., " Stett. Ent. Zeit.," xlv., pp. 193-194 (1884); Kirby, 

 "Cat.," p. 839 (1892) ; Auriv., "Iris," vii., p. 139 (1894).— Bombyx var. veneta, ab. 

 hilleri, vaihi. Aberratio utriusquesexus unicolor brunnea. Exp. alar, ut in varietate 

 veneta. 5 g , 4 ? . Patria : Italia septentrionalis, litus venetum (Standfuss). 



Among the var. veneta bred by Standfuss (supra) nine examples 

 (5 ^s and 4 J s) agree with the rest in size, but are throughout of an 

 unicolorous brown, without the least trace of yellow above or below. 

 These he names after Hiller, of Brieg. He observes that veneta and 

 hilleri are to be looked upon as seashore forms whose larvae feed 

 exclusively on almost all kinds of salt-marsh plants, chiefly Triyloclrin 

 maritimum and species of Salicnrnia. On the other side of the Adriatic, 

 he adds, 21. castrensis is not rare, but is of the same size and colour as 

 the ordinary German form. 



S. var. kirc/hisica, Staud., " Stett. Ent. Zeit.," xl., p. 318 (1879) ; Rom., 

 "Mem.," ii., p. 12(1885); Auriv., " Iris," vii., pp. 137, 139 (1894).— A number of bred 

 B. castrensis sent by Henke are so different from the Central European form that 

 they should be distinguished as a local race. The specimens are much paler, the 

 males with much weaker brown bands on the forewings, and with a pale whitish 

 transverse band on the hindwings. The females are not brown with yellow trans- 

 verse bands on the forewings, but have yellow forewings with indistinct brown bands 

 and markings. Some intermediates leading up to the type are present (Staudinger). 

 Distibutiox. — Transcaucasia : Helenendorf (Romanoff). Turkestan : Saisan 

 (Staudinger), Askhabad, Nuchar, common (Christoph). 



Egg-laying. — The eggs are laid in true Malacosomid form, but 

 appear somewhat irregular, and at different levels owing to the 

 irregularity of the surface of the twig on which the batch examined is 

 laid. They are placed in a close spiral, the first row laid rather flatly, the 

 succeeding rows almost uprightly, but all united in a bracelet by a thick 

 gum, scarcely attached to the twig and laid in reality lengthwise upon 

 one another. They are never superimposed, which, indeed, would be 

 fatal to the lower stratum owing to the thickness of the gum in which 

 they are embedded. Walker observes that the eggs are laid round a 

 culm of grass, or stalk of Artemisia, just as those of 21. neustria are 

 laid around a twig of some shrub ; the selected position is such that 

 the plants on which the eggs are laid are often covered by the spring 

 tides ; the batches of eggs, therefore, are often broken off and drifted 

 away, and have several times been found in tidal refuse when hunt- 

 ing for beetles. As they have an efficient " waterproof varnish," it is 

 easy to see how readily the species may be dispersed along the shore. 

 Newman says that the egg mass is about an inch in length, the eggs 

 embedded in a most tenacious glue which is not soluble in water; they 

 form a compact cylinder, the axis of which is the flowering stem of some 

 grass that is easily withdrawn when shrunk by desiccation, each egg- 



Hellins observes that the eggs hatch 



