134 LIST OF LEPIDOPTERA. 



N.B. — If I were to decide from my own experience, I should at once say- 

 that the larvae of this insect were not cannibals. When a boy I have crammed 

 them by shoals into a small and almost air-tight box, like slaves in the hold 

 of a ship, and subjected them to treatment of the most aggravating description, 

 but never in one single instance remember to have seen them bite or devour 

 each other. My friend Mr. H. Evans, has told me that he has seen the 

 perfect insect in some abundance around the gas-lamps in September and 

 October. The larva very frequently feeds upon the young leaves of the 

 common laurel in spring, and apparently rather likes prussic acid than other- 

 wise. (C.) 



67. P. bucephala. — Common of course. I noticed this insect for the first 

 time in the perfect state last year. I saw several specimens hanging suspen- 

 ded from the under side of leaves, with the wings folded completely round 

 the body, like a little roll of cloth. 



N.B. — I have not unfrequently seen this insect sitting on a blade of grass 

 just after it had emerged from the pupa. Though one of the commonest 

 it is one of the loveliest of our British Lepidoptera. (C.) 



68. C. curtula. — Not very uncommon in the neighbourhood of Brandeston, 

 but much rarer at Playford. Having mentioned the habits, so far as I am 

 acquainted with them, of this insect in the larva and pupa states, in my 

 paper on pupa-digging, I need not recapitulate them here. I observe, however, 

 in the "Manual," that the larva is said to be taken in the months 6, 7, 8, 

 and 9; from which I infer that it is asserted to be double-brooded. This 

 assertion, I suppose, rests upon the authority of M. Duponchel, from whom 

 the description of the larva is taken. Mr. Stainton, after giving May as the 

 time of its appearance in the perfect state, properly puts a note of interro- 

 gation for the period of the second appearance, as if in doubt. I fully share 

 his doubt. I have never met with the larvae earlier than the second half 

 of September, and from that on to the end of October. The imago has 

 always appeared in May. I scarcely think there are two broods, but I speak 

 with diffidence. 



N.B. — I am certainly inclined to think that this insect is double-brooded, 

 but cannot speak from personal experience. Mr. Sealy, however, tells us, "Intel- 

 ligencer," No. 44, page 41, 1857, that on July 2nd. he took in Wicken Fen a 

 full-fed larva, which spun up the next day, and produced the perfect insect July 

 20th. M. Duponchel and Guenee remark that like C. anastomosis the larva 

 is found in June and July, and again in August and September, and that 

 the former all produce moths in July, whilst of the latter some emerge in 

 September and October, and others remain in the pupa state till the following 

 May. I have myself never taken the larva except in the autumn. I have 

 beaten it both in Suffolk and Kent from September 4th. to November 4th., 

 both from aspen and black Italian poplar: the moths all emerged from 

 March 17th. to April 19th. The larva is stouter and of a much redder col- 

 our than that of C. reclusa. The following description taken from a full- 

 fed specimen, may be interesting to some of the readers of "The Naturalist:" 

 — Length about one inch; pinkish drab, yellower on the back. Down the 

 centre of the back three interrupted black lines ; ditto on each side; the two 



