EUMORPHIDI. 57 



give his conclusions. On pp. 188 et seq. of this work he suggests that 

 the remote ancestor of the Eumorphid or Chcerocampid larva was 

 uniformly green without any markings ; at a later period the white 

 longitudinal subdorsal line made its appearance, then, at a still 

 later period, this line vanished, with the exception of a few more 

 or less distinct remnants, whilst, at the same time, from certain 

 portions of it, the eye-spots of the ist and 2nd abdominal seg- 

 ments became developed ; after the perfecting of these eye-spots, 

 weak repetitions of the latter appeared as black spots on all the 

 segments except the last. Thus there are four chief stages in the 

 phyletic development of the group : (1) Green larva without marking. 

 (2) With a subdorsal line. (3) Development of eyespots on ist 

 and 2nd abdominal segments. (4) A repetition of rudimentary eye- 

 spots on all remaining segments but the 12th. He then notes the 

 following groups into which the larvae fall : 



1. Green, short oblique stripes over the legs, simple white subdorsal line, but 

 no trace of eye-spots — Clarina f syriaca, Led., Darapsa myron, Cr., D. choerilus, Cr. 



2. Subdorsal more or less retained, with eye-spot on the 1st and 2nd 

 abdominal segments, imperfect traces in form of dark spots on succeeding segments — 

 Eurnorpha elpenor, L., Theretra porcellus, L., Fiorina f japonica, Bdv., Hippotion 

 celerio, L *. 



3. Subdorsal line retained to a variable degree, eye-spots on all the segments 

 — Lilinaf bisecta, Hors. (z^iiilhetensis, Walk.), Xylophanes oldenlandiae, Fabr., 

 Isoples alecto, L., Pergesa acteus, Cram., Dilonche tersa, L. 



In the third group the subdorsal line varies much, in some it 

 appears to have completely vanished (Pergesa acteus), in others 

 it is present as a light stripe running along all the segments 

 (Isoples alecto), whilst in others it is retained as a broad white 

 stripe which only extends to the 4th segment (Dilonche tersa). 

 It is, however, an interesting fact that, even in this group, 

 which has made the greatest step forward, the subdorsal line is of 

 general occurrence, because the eye-spots in all these species may 

 have almost a similar development to those of elpenor and porcellus. 

 The third group appears to be purely tropical. Weismann considers 

 that the great differences observed among the Chcerocampid larvae 

 can be very simply explained on the view that they stand at 

 different levels of phyletic development, some species having re- 

 mained far behind (group 1 ), others having advanced further (group 

 2), and others having reached the highest point of development 

 (group 3). The fact that the species of the third group are only 

 tropical accords well with this view, since many facts prove that 

 phyletic development proceeds more rapidly in the tropics than in 

 temperate climates. The striking markings of the Chcerocampid 



* It is most remarkable that, whilst European entomologists (Buckler, Larvae, 

 &c, iii., pi. xxv., fig. 2, Sepp, Ins. Ned., viii., pi. 50) figure the larva of celerio as having 

 eye-spots only on the 4th and 5th segments, Horsfield and Moore I Cat. Lep. Ins. 

 Mus. East India Company, pi. xi) figure the larva of the Indian celerio with eye- 

 spots on all the segments from the 4th to the 10th, the size diminishing from the 

 front to the hindmost segments. It appears very doubtful whether two such 

 dissimilar larvae belong to the same species. Again, Staudinger obtained a larva of 

 alecto from Beyrout with a very distinct subdorsal line, a beautiful eye-spot on the 

 4th segment, which is repeated with gradual diminution to segment 8, whilst 

 Horsfield and Moore (Cat. Lep. Ins. East Ind. Co., pi. x) figure the eye- 

 spots as being perfectly alike on all the segments (see Weismann, Studies in Theory 

 of Descent, pp. 193 — 198). 



f Genus — Clarina, type syriaca. Fiorina, type japonica. Lilina, type bisecta 

 (silhetensis). Acteus might well stand as the type of Pergesa, and oldenlandiae of 

 Xylophanes, 



