276 LIST OF LEPIDOPVEUA. 



four within a space of a few yards square. I have also known the larva 

 to be taken upon lilac and laurustinus. The eggs may be found in plenty 

 where the insect occurs on the under side of the leaves of ash and privet, 

 at the end of June. (C.) 



16. Acherontia atropos. — The larva is brought to me almost every season. 

 In 1856 I had four, but I did not get one imago; in fact, I should be 

 glad to hear if any certain method has been found tor rearing this insect. 

 A correspondent in the "Intelligencer" adopts the plan of drenching them 

 once a week with water. As far as my experience goes, however, with 

 other species of Lepidoptera, I should say that pupae cannot be kept too 

 dry. There are, I have no doubt, exceptions to this rule among marsh- 

 plant feeders, but I invariably find when digging that the part of the tree 

 where pupae are found is that which is dry, and for the most part where 

 wet has not penetrated for years. (B.) 



17. S. tilice. — Very common in the pupa state, though I have only 

 observed the larva very rarely. I was once asked, I think by Mr. Bond, 

 whether I had ever bred an Ichneumon from the many pupae I had 

 had of this insect, as he had never known of one, to which I replied 

 that I had not. It has always struck me as a very curious circumstance 

 how subject some genera and species are to the attacks of Ichneumons, 

 while others appear comparatively exempt. As illustrations of the former 

 I may mention Centra and Notodonta. As far as my experience goes, 

 clear green larvaa seem most frequently to fall a prey to these parasites. 

 What a benefactor to entomologists would he be, who might discover a 

 method of destroying these horrid little creatures without injury to the 

 unhappy larva. If I mistake not, Mr. Douglas records somewhere in the 

 "Zoologist," one instance in which an Ichneumoned caterpillar produced a 

 Moth, the eggs of the Ichneumon having been extracted from the larva 

 with a sharp-pointed instrument. Of this, however, I am not sure. 



N.B. — The larva of this insect occasionally feeds on birch. I took one 

 half-fed upon this tree last year, (1856.) It sometimes lays up under the 

 loose bark of old elms. I found two pupse this spring, (1857,) more than 

 four feet from the ground. The larva, when ready to bury, loses entirely 

 its beautiful green colour, and becomes a sort of dirty purple. As an 

 incipient, I remember being very much taken in by finding one in this 

 state. I thought I had got something quite new. (C.) 



18. S. ocellatus. — Much the rarest of the three species; sallow is, I 

 thmk, the favourite food of the larva, but it seems almost impossible to 

 find one unstung. 



This insect is, I think, in this locality equally common' with]; S. tilia 

 (B-) 



Last August, (1856,) I took a larva of this insect on the Ontario 



