Article beginning on page 217.
Psyche 4:217, 1883.

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October-December 1884.1 PSYCHE. -217
dissimilarity of the sexes in Pleocoma,
which genus has been placed by
Leconte in the distant coprophago~~s
series of Lamellicorns. Quite recently
Gerstacker has pointed out2 the close
relationship which exists between
Reocoma and the European genus
Pachyfus, the latter an undoubted
melolonthian. The females in these
genera resemble each other closely, and
in both are without wings or wing-
covers.
It seems probable that Leconte was
somewhat misled by the determination
of a larva described by Osten Sacken as
that of Reocoma.* This larva is sup-
posed by Gerstacker to belong to a
lucanid beetle, but it may with greater
probability be conjectured to be the
larva of a Geoinipes.
Between the females of HyfotricJiia
and those of Pleocoma evidences of re-
lationship are not wanting, and as both
must now be considered members of the
melolonthian series, a closer comparison than has yet been made will possibly
bring the two genera into still more in- timate relations. The series of genera,
Hypotricw Hectrodes and Reocoma,
exhibits a very instructive passage from a winged insect with active powers of
flight, as in the male of Hyfotrichia,
to the degraded, wingless, and wholly
subterranean female of Pleocoma.
2 Entom zeit . . . . Stettin, 1883, jahrg. 44, p. 436 3 Trms arner. entom. faoc , 1874, v. 5, p. 84. DRINKING HABIT OF A MOTH.^-
E. D. Jones describes a remarkable
drinking habit of a yellow and black
Brazilian moth (Panthers [corr.] tar-
daZa?*ia). He found these moths sit-
ting on the wet stones in small streams
near San Paulo/sucking up the water
in a continuous stream, and letting it
escape in drops from the abdomen.
These drops fell at the average rate of
per minute, and as near as he could
judge of their size, the total quantity of water which must thus pass through the
body of the moth in three hours must
be a cubic inch, or about 200 times the
bulk of its own body. Mr. Jones spec-
ulates on the possible meaning of this
, 1 Proc. lit. and phil. soc, Liverpool, 1883, v. 37, p. 76-77,
and asks-"'Can it be that the moth
extracts nourishment from minute parti-
cles of organic matter contained in the
water?" He remarks, however, that
the water of the streams appear very
deal and pure, and notes that the moths
seems specially adapted for this habit.
The tibiae of the hind legs are very
thick, and are armed with long hairs,
which by their capillary action prevent
the moth being immersed in the water.
"1 have often," he adds, "seen one of
them knocked down by a little spurt of
water splashing over the stone on which
it was standing, and it iecovered itself almost immediately without being wet-
ted in the least."-7ourn. roy, micros.
SJC., OC~. lSb4, S. 2, V. 4. p. 741.




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