260 ENTOMOLOGY. 



agree with Mr. Bree in believing Galathea not to be a Suffolk insect; it 19 

 however abundant in a wood on the Essex side of the River Stour, which 

 divides the counties. I bred two or three specimens of Bembecifurmis, and 

 I one day took three specimens of Bombyliformis in Raydon Wood. Batis 

 and Derasa are not uncommon in a wood called Snake Wood, at Stoke. I 

 have never seen E. versicolor at Raydon, but I think it must be there. — 

 R. B. P., Grays Inn, London. 



[The above communication, for which we are obliged, i3 authenticated by 

 the writer's name. — Ed.] 



Double-broodedness of the Notodontee. — In "The Naturalist" for April, 1858, 

 No. 86, page 82, I remarked that it was my firm opinion that P. palpina 

 was double-brooded, and gave my reasons for saying so. I am now happy 

 to state that my friend Mr. Gascoyne, of Newark, who has with the most 

 untiring perseverance set himself to work to prove the double-broodedness of 

 some of the Notodontce by incontrovertible facts, has been rewarded with the 

 most signal success, and amongst others has proved upon evidence which 

 nothing can gainsay, that P. palpina is double-brooded. He has given the 

 result of his experiments in the "Zoologist" for September, page 6248. Aa 

 many of the readers of "The Naturalist" do not see the "Zoologist," and as 

 I believe I was the first person who started the double-brooded discussion, I 

 may perhaps be excused if I give a short summary of Mr. Gascoyne's remarks. 

 In the autumn of 1857 he had a number of pupae of P. palpina. The moths 

 began to appear May 28th., 1858, and in the course of a week every single 

 pupa had produced a moth. From these insects he obtained two sets of fertile 

 eggs. The first batch was laid May 30th. and 31st.; hatched June 8th. and 

 9th.; larva? full-fed and buried June 27th. to July 4th.; all the moths emerged 

 July 27th. to August 5th. The second batch was laid June 6th. and 7th.; 

 hatched June 14th. and 15th; larva? buried July 10th. to 17th.; moths emerged 

 August 5th. to 12th. Part of the first brood were kept entirely out of doors. 

 Accident killed all but three; these were full-fed at the same time as those 

 kept in confinement, and two moths appeared August 5th. The other larvae 

 of both sets, though kept in confinement, were fed upon growing plants. It 

 is clear, therefore, that P. palpina is double-brooded both out of doors and 

 in, that is, in its natural state, and that keeping the larva? in confinement 

 makes no difference at all. I now go on to N. dictcea, still quoting Mr. 

 Gascoyne. From his autumnal pupae of 1857 the moths began to emerge 

 June 1st., 1858; eggs were laid June 3rd. and 4th.; hatched June 12th.; 

 larvae buried July 13th. to 19th. ; moths emerged August 12th. to 17th. These 

 larva? were also fed upon growing plants. Lastly I come to N. ziczac. On 

 July 17th., 1858, Mr. Gascoyne took twenty-two full-fed larva? of this insect. 

 Two died, the rest buried directly. The pupa? were kept almost all the time 

 out of doors, and every one produced a moth from August 12th. to 15th. 

 Now of course all these larvae must have been hatched from eggs laid in May 

 or June, and the moth which laid them was the parent of those which emerged 

 in August. Now Mr. Edwin Shepherd, one of the strongest opponents of the 

 double-brooded theory, said if we could prove this the chain of evidence would 



