LIST OF LEP1D0PTERA. 37 



able, like my friend Mr. Bree, to feed them on the growing plant, and give 

 them plenty of sun and air, they all died. (C.) 



27. O. pudibunda. — Not uncommon. The beautiful larva may be found on 

 almost every tree. The colour of the tufts varies from bright yellow to dirty 

 brown. In forming its cocoon it produces more silk than any other British 

 insect. The cocoon indeed, in colour and consistency, strikingly resembles 

 that of the famous B. mori. 



N.B. — I have always found that the dirty brown or rather smoky-looking 

 larva produced g and the lemon-coloured ones $ . (C.) 



28. O. coryli. — Strange to say, I never met with the slightest trace of this 

 insect, though oak and hazel abounded, both at Playford and Brandeston. 

 Perhaps my fellow-labourers may have been more fortunate. I may just men- 

 tion that the larva varies in colour from pale primrose to brick red. 



N.B. — I bred this insect from larvse taken in the autumn of 1856, this 

 spring, 1857. (B.) 



I have taken the larvse in tolerable plenty in the woods round Ipswich, 

 and both larva? and perfect insect in the woods near here. The moth appears 

 in May, and flies, almost before it is dark, along the hedges and ridings. I 

 had this year a brood of eggs, laid the 27th. of May; from these I had 

 about thirty pupae in August. On October 28th., three $ and one g made 

 their appearance, and since then two more £ an d one g have emerged. I 

 attribute this premature development to the very hot summer and extraordi- 

 narily mild autumn. The insect is, however, double-brooded, as I have beaten 

 the larva fall-fed in July, and the perfect insect appeared the following August. 

 I have beaten the larva off beech, hazel, maple, and oak. It prefers the two 

 former. It may be interesting to remark that all the five 0_ I bred this 

 autumn were full of eggs. I have kept some of them in the hope that they 

 are impregnated, and will hatch in the spring. The £ flies I may say before 

 his wings are dry, and it is next to impossible to secure a good specimen, 

 even when bred. (C.) 



29. O. antiqua. — Very common. 



30. C. Neustria. — In immense profusion. The larva was a perfect pest, 

 crawling over the walls of the house, and entering the bed-rooms, in fact 

 "putting in an appearance" in the most unexpected places. This seems to me 

 a convenient place to make inquiries on a subject which has puzzled me ever 

 since I began to collect, namely, "what becomes of the perfect insect in this 

 and other species?" I could not have observed less than from four hundred 

 to five hundred larva? of this insect; I am certainly beyond the mark when 

 I say that I did not see a dozen of the imago. Now, making every allowance 

 for ichneumons, muscardine, birds, and every other ill to which caterpillar 

 flesh is heir, is not this an immeasurably small proportion? The trifling 

 number of perfect insects, (at least the trifling number visible,) compared with 

 the abundance of larvae, must have struck every collector. Look at the vast 

 number of eggs deposited by one single female caja! see the caterpillars by 

 hundreds feasting on juicy nettles, or scuttling across the footpath, and yet 

 how many have seen a dozen specimens of the perfect insect during their 



