52 
Psyche 
[March 
This is the only account published on the life-history of a 
New World Panorpa. Miayke has carried out some splen- 
did studies on the Japanese klugi, securing all stages; and 
Shiperovitsh has more recently reared two European spe- 
cies, communis and cognata. The following discussion of 
the metamorphosis of Panorpa is based largely on these 
investigations, supplemented by a few observations of my 
own on P. maculosa Hagen. 
The eggs are spherical or oval, and usually white; they 
vary somewhat in size, depending on the dimensions of 
the species, but are usually less than a millimeter long. 
Normally they are laid in the soil in clusters of various 
sizes, including as many as 97 eggs. The eggs have an 
extremely thin shell and require a great deal of moisture 
for development. I have had eggs of maculosa dry up 
and shrivel within a couple of hours from the time they 
were deposited, when they were exposed to the normal 
atmosphere, even though placed on a non-absorbent surface. 
In about 6 or 8 days the larva within the egg pushes up 
the shell at one pole with the frontal part of its head and, 
after the shell has broken away, it unrolls itself and crawls 
out. In comparison with the size of the egg the larva is quite 
large, about 5 millimeters long. On emergence it has a 
pure white body, a yellow head, and pink eyes ; but in a few 
hours these colors darken. The antennse are small, consist- 
ing of 4 short segments, but the eyes are large and com- 
posed of about 25 ocelli. There are 3 pairs of thoracic legs, 
each consisting of 4 segments, and there are also 4 pairs 
of abdominal prolegs. The first 9 abdominal segments bear 
a pair of stout annulated spines, those of the eighth and 
ninth segments being much enlarged. The tenth segment 
possesses a single, very long spine, projecting posteriorly. 
The larvse probably pass through seven instars in about 
two weeks’ time, although Shiperovitsh claims that there 
are only four instars in P. communis. During these stages 
the larva undergoes very few changes : the abdominal legs 
become relatively shorter, the head smaller, and the spines 
on the abdominal segments are greatly reduced. The larvse 
feed readily on fresh meat, fish, or injured insects; and 
