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THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



very grave mistake. The whole of our Zyganidce are not only 

 thoroughly well known in all their stages, but are fully described and 

 figured by Continental authors of such lasting renown as Hubner, 

 Esper, Ochsenheimer, and others. Surely Mr. Pierce does not carry 

 insular prejudices to such an extent as to ignore these authors. But 

 even if he does, our own writers have described, and for a great part 

 figured in their various stages Filiptndulce, Lonicerce, Trifolii, Meliloti, 

 and Nubigena, so that the only one left for us (if we exclude Nubigena 

 var. Minos) is Exulans, of whose specific distinction no doubt has ever 

 arisen.* 



Again, that a specimen of Meliloti was bred by the late Mr. Alfred 

 Owen, from a larva taken by Mr. S. J. Capper, by no means proves 

 that Meliloti fed away from its native home, will still produce Meliloti. 

 No doubt Mr. Capper will tell us in the Young Naturalist the real 

 particulars, and perhaps describe the larva, but I fully expect to hear 

 that the larva when found and sent away was pretty well full-fed, in 

 which case it had fed during the end of the previous summer and the 

 autumn, had hibernated, and fed up in the spring, in the place in 

 which it was found and therefore nearly, the whole of its larval ex- 

 istence was passed in its native home, and not out of it as Mr. Pierce 

 suggests. 



It is to be regretted that no plate accompanied Mr. Pierce's paper. 

 I have, however, through the kindness of Mr. Tugwell and Mr. Webb, 

 seen two sets of explanatory sketches, and while entirely witholding 

 any opinion, as we have not at present sufficient data on which to 

 base one, I must confess that the results appear sufficiently surprising 

 and interesting to render further enquiry most desirable. 

 55, Lincolns Inn Fields, London. 



By J. JENNER WEIR. 



Mr. F. N. Pierce, in his paper inserted in the March number of 

 The Young Naturalist, has done well in calling attention to the im- 

 portance of the genital armiture of lepidoptera, but he seems to be 

 be quite unaware that the literature on the subject is extensive. 



In "Transactions of the Linnean Society, Second Series, Vol. I., 

 Zoology," p.p. 357 — 369, will be found a paper read by F. Buchanan 

 White, M.D., F.L.S., on 21st Dec, 1876, on "The Male Genital 



All the Burnetts except Meliloti, and including both Minos and Exulans, are 

 figured in the second volume of " Buckler's Larva," published by the Ray Society. 

 — J.E.R. 



