84 LIST OF LEPIDOPTERA. 



spring is a vague term, and therefore I do not know the precise date when 

 Mr. Naish found or bred these two females. For my own part, I have never 

 found or bred, except when forced, Dicteea earlier than the first week in 

 June. Now assuming that this was the period in Mr. Naish's case, we have 

 just eight weeks for the eggs to hatch, the larva to feed up, and for the 

 insect to remain in the pupa. Without at all questioning the accuracy of 

 this statement, I must be permitted to say that this most unusual and rapid 

 development was, in my opinion, due to their having been bred in confinement. 

 It is evident in this and similar cases, that the larva must have become a 

 pupa, at the latest, by the middle of July. Has any "pupa digger" ever 

 turned up Dicteea in July? I can confidently assert that I never have; I 

 never found it earlier than the second week in August — rarely before the 

 end of that month. If the experience of others coincide with mine in this 

 respect, this fact strongly militates against the notion, that in its natural 

 state it is double-brooded. But even supposing that some fortunate digger 

 has turned up a Camelina or a Dicteea in July; did it emerge the same year? 

 I feel confident that it did not. The argument so strongly relied upon by 

 some, that fine and perfect specimens are found during many months of the 

 same year, proves literally nothing. I have bred specimens of Camelina out 

 of the same batch of pupae, from the middle of May to the end of August. 

 Again, it is well known that the larvae, which in a state of nature hybernate, 

 of some species will, when in confinement, occasionally feed up rapidly, at 

 least some of them, and produce the perfect insect in the same year; for 

 instance, A. caja. Yet no one asserts that Caja is therefore double-brooded 

 naturally. From my own observations therefore, I am disposed to say, without, 

 I trust, dogmatizing, that neither Camelina or Dicteea is naturally double- 

 brooded. The discussion now opened will, I hope, be fully carried out in 

 the pages of "The Naturalist," and at the same time in a friendly and gentleman- 

 like spirit. 



N. B. — In the neighbourhood of Stowmarket this insect is very uncommon. 

 I have seen but one larva during the past season, and during a long residence 

 here, my friend Mr. Bree, has not met with either larva, pupa, or perfect 

 insect. The egg, which is a delicate white, is laid on the back of the leaf, 

 and may be found from June to August. Like the rest of the Notodonta 

 N. dicteea generally lays her eggs singly, but I once found twenty-six on 

 one twig. The larva, though generally greenish white with a yellow stripe 

 on the side, is not unfrequently of a dull olive brown, clouded on the back 

 with purple. It is then often mistaken for the larva of N. dictceoides, but 

 no one who has ever seen the real larva of this latter insect, can afterwards 

 confound the two. It is quite smooth, very glossy, and of a beautiful deep 

 purplish brown, with a bright yellow stripe on each side. The brown larva 

 of -ZV. dicteea is studded all over with numerous indentations which, though 

 it is glossy, give it a rough wrinkled appearance. It has no stripe on the 

 side, and the dorsal protuberance, and the warty horse-shoe plate on the 

 anal segment, are much smaller than in Dictceoides. These brown larva? are, 

 so far as my experience goes, when first hatched green, and do not turn 

 colour till about half-fed. When young the dorsal protuberance has the 



