102 



ingly instructive. No very early (March) specimens such as occur 

 some years were seen m 1916, but the first brood of eijerides 

 appeared without any break or diminution of numbers from early 

 spring till the middle of June. There is little doubt that all of 

 these belonged to one brood derived from eggs laid the previous 

 year. A distinct gap was then observed in the occurrence of the 

 butterfly and it was not until the end of July that fresh specimens 

 appeared. The fact that many of the eggs laid in the latter part of 

 May and beginning of June did not become butterflies till 

 September 12th to October 3rd, while hundreds of. larv* less 

 advanced than these and only half grown in the second and 3rd 

 week in August were thrown away for want of facilities for rearing 

 them, renders the idea of a 3rd brood in 1916 impossible. It seems 

 unlikely that most of these larvae could possibly have produced any 

 butterflies till next year. It would appear then that in 1916 so far 

 from being three-brooded efjerides has been probably only partially 

 double brooded, for it is extremely unlikel}' that the latest laid eggs 

 of the first brood have yet produced butterflies, or that they will 

 do so. It is to be presumed that the young larvae, from the eggs of 

 the first brood, which were flung out about August loth to 20th, 

 would have hibernated as larvfe or pupfe, or some in one stage and 

 some in the other. The continuous succession of perfectly freshly 

 hatched butterflies from early spring till the middle of June would 

 indicate the hibernation of individual larva) of very difi'erent 

 growths, or of larviB and pupa). It appears to be extremely likely 

 from these 1916 observations that t'l/eiides sometimes takes the full 

 year, or about that time, from egg to imago. 



"Dr. Perkins draws my attention to another interesting point 

 which I should like to mention. It appears to be the case that 

 while the 2nd brood males are normally and on the average darker 

 than the first brood, it is the reverse with the females, which are on 

 the whole brighter in the second brood. 



" These experiments by Dr. Perkins are exceedingly useful and 

 we are very thankful to him for undertaking them and for giving 

 us the results of his work. They go a long Avay towards clearing 

 up many obscure points in the life-history of this butterfly, in the 

 south-western districts of our island, and we look forward with much 

 interest to his further observations on the brood which will result 

 from the late summer and autumn laid eggs, some of which are 

 now hatching out." 



In the discussion which ensued it was shown that the larva 



