206 LTST OF LEPJDOPTF.RA. 



Crewe has taken the larva. As I am called upon by Mr. Greene to express 

 an opinion upon Mr. King's statement on this subject in the "Substitute," 

 and repeated in the March number of "The Naturalist," I have no hesitation 

 in saying that I do not believe a word of it. During the last ten or twelve 

 years I must have sugared some thousands of trees in this neighbourhood, and 

 I never saw a single specimen of D. orion. My brother, who lives near the 

 locality mentioned by Mr. King, never saw it at sugar. He has, I believe, 

 taken the larva, but never bred the insect. All we know about this insect 

 entirely negatives the probability of its being taken in the numbers mentioned 

 by Mr. King. I am afraid Mr. K. has multiplied his species by the same 

 arithmetical system by which his four specimens of E. versicolor, taken in the 

 same locality, became magnified into forty. (B.) 



I beat two full-fed larva; of this insect August 25th., 1856, in a wood near 

 Ipswich. They were feeding respectively upon oak and birch. The laiwa very 

 much resembles in appearance that of L. salicis, but is of course smaller, and 

 the hairs are longer. I fully concur in the grave doubts entertained by my 

 friends Messrs. Greene and Bree, respecting the accuracy of the story told in 

 "Subst." 220. (C.) 



11. A. tridens. — Larva by no means uncommon on hawthorn, and pupa (?) 

 under bark on ditto. 



N.B. — I think the pupa of this insect is decidedly more slender and 

 delicate than that of A. psi. I am utterly unable to distinguish the perfect 

 insects, and shall never cease to marvel that two such dissimilar larva; 

 should produce such precisely similar insects. The larva is polyphagoiis on 

 trees and shrubs. (C.) 



12. A. psi. — Common of course. The perfect insect is fond of resting on 

 the trunks of fir trees during the day. 



13. A. leporina. — One larva, but so stung as to be almost undistinguishable. 

 It is the only time I ever met with the insect in any of its stages. If any 

 of my readers should have a specimen or two to spare, I should feel much 

 obliged for them. 



N.B. — The larva is not at all uncommon in the midland counties, from 

 July to September. Its favourite food-plants are birch and alder, but I have 

 occasionally taken it upon aspen and Ontario poplar, and have known it to 

 be taken on oak. I am strongly inclined to think that the old entomologists 

 were right in making two species, A. leporina and bradyporina. I have once 

 or twice bred the golden yellow larva, with black dorsal tufts, and the perfect 

 insect has been the pale moth figured by Wood, Ho. 309, as A. leporina. I 

 have not unfrequently, in past years, bred the grass-green larva with snow- 

 white hairs, and the result has always been the moth figured, Wood, 310, as 

 A. bradyporina. I should very much like to know whether the experiment 

 has ever been tried on a large scale, and whether both white and yellow larva; 

 have ever been reared from the same batch of eggs. The larvae, both white 

 and yellow, turn to a dirty smoke-colour when they wish to spin up. They 

 often eat their way some depth into rotten wood before forming a cocoon. 

 It is very curious to watch them boring their way in. (C.) 



14. A. aceris. — This insect was not uncommon in the pupa state under 



