Qiieries and Ans'noers, 477 



would never grow bigger, and died in the course of time. I was thus far in 

 the dark for many years, when in 1808 I was sweeping out a damp shed, in 

 which were great quantities of the common black beetle, and in killing them 

 I discovered in many of them a full grown hairworm : I therefore concluded 

 that the hairworm was the origin of the beetle ; and that, after it had lived 

 a certain time in the water, it retired into some hole, and shrivelled up into 

 a chrysalis, and formed the beetle. This I however afterwards found to be 

 another grand mistake of mine, as on examining the natural habits of the 

 beetle (not from books, but from actual observation), I found its natural 

 history quite different. I therefore still wished and wish to know, how an 

 animal such as the hairworm could get into the intestines of the beetle, and 

 there grow to its full size, almost as heavy as the insect it lives in. I can 

 believe that the bots in horses proceed from the eggs or nits deposited 

 on their hair by a certain fly ; but what is the origin of the tapeworm, and 

 other worms, in man or beast, or what is their ultimate or last stage of 

 perfection ? How does the tapeworm propagate its species ? We know that 

 it is propagated by cuttings ; but naturalists know that nothing can be pro- 

 duced without original seed. Even the louse. Sir, (you can give it its 

 scientific name) [Pediculus humanus] has puzzled me very much to find 

 how it first originates on the cleanest of children's heads. If some of your 

 many excellent correspondents will answer all or any of the above queries, 

 I shall be particularly thankful ; if not, I shall endeavour to answer them 

 all in my own clumsy wa}^, as I have a deal more to say on these subjects, 

 but forbear, on account of my not being perfect in the language of science. 

 Yours, &c. — Agronome. March 28. 1831. 



Are Polyommatus ArgwluSy MelUce'a EuphrosynQ and M. Selene double- 

 brooded or single-brooded Insects ? — Sir, I should be obliged to any of 

 your entomological correspondents, if they would inform me, through the 

 medium of your Magazine, whether they consider the beautiful little Poly- 

 6mmatus Argiolm (Papilio Argiolu* Linn.)y azure blue butterfly {fig. 97.), 



to be a double-brooded or a single-brood- 

 ed insect. This may be deemed a question 

 not worth taking up the room it oc- 

 cupies in your pages, as the answer to 

 It might be readily obtained by reference 

 to almost any work on British Lepidop- 

 tera. But my reason for asking the ques- 

 tion is, that, though the butterfly is com- 

 mon enough in this district in the spring, 

 more common, indeed, than I happen else- 

 where to have observed it *, and usually 

 makes its appearance with us by the mid- 

 dle of April, if the weather be fine, or 

 towards the end of that month, I never yet could see, in any one season, 

 a single specimen later in the summer than the month of June, or one 

 which could be supposed to be any other than the product of the spring 

 brood. I am well aware that the insect is mentioned by most entomo- 

 logical writers as a double-brooded species : and for this I may refer you, 

 among other works, to Haworth's Lepidoptera Britdnnicafj Samouelle's 



* I generally see it daily during its season, when the weather is fine, 

 hovering about, and occasionally settling upon, the evergreens in my garden, 

 with which it seems to be much delighted. The holly and ivy, on which, I 

 believe, the caterpillar feeds, abound in this neighbourhood ; and it is no 

 uncommon thing to see four or five of the butterflies at a time vapouring 

 about the same bush. 



f In Haworth's Prodromus Lepidoptei'orum Britafinicorum, which was pub- 

 lished in 1802, one year before his larger work, P. Argiolu* is merely stated 



