Ih77.] 43 



surface on wliich it is constructed, and contrives, by sticking tliem on its work, to 

 make it harmonize with its surroundings ; I noticed that, as in the case of vinula, 

 the moth makes its escape by a small orifice at the top, while the rest of the cocoon 

 remains so hard and tough that one must use the forceps to pull it further open ; 

 the inside is lined with a smooth cloth-like substance. 



The pupa-skin measures -j^ inch in length, thick and dumpy in its proportions, 

 the wing-covers and antennis-cases long, the end of the abdomen very bluntly 

 rounded with, on each side near to the previous segmental division, two slightly 

 projecting and divergent minute points ; the colour of the upper surface darkish 

 brown, deeply tinged on the tliorax and back of abdomen with dark pvirple, the 

 wing-covers and all the under parts light brown, the whole surface entirely without 

 gloss. — WiLLiAii Buckler, Emsworth : June 11th, 1877- 



Biston hirtaria : ivJiich sex possesses the power of attracting the other? — My 



attention has been drawn for the last two years to the above question by observing ' 



that the males, after drying their wings and finding a suitable place to rest, remain 



on or about the same spot until they pair, which, in one instance that came under 



my notice this season, was on the thirteenth day, whilst the females seldom remain 



more than one or two days on the same spot. Thinking that perhaps the male 



possessed the power of attracting the female, I tested it with the following result. 



On Tuesday morning, April 3rd, I saw two males on a row of lime trees in the Hampstead 



Eoad, and after clipping a piece off the wing and drawing a pencil mark round them I 



left them till the following morning, when they were both in cop. with females, which I 



am certain were not on the trees the previous evening. In one pair, the male just rested 



on the pencil mark, having moved a space of about two inches ; while in the other 



pair he had not moved half-an-inch. The following week, I pinned three females 



and two males to the same trees, but these were removed by some one before the 



following morning. The following afternoon, I pinned one male and two females to 



some poplar trees in Regent's Park, and the next afternoon the male was in cop., 



whilst one female had deposited her eggs, and the other remained for three days 



without any change, when I removed her. The weather being so cold, I did not see 



any more till the last week in April, when I took two males and two females all 



fresh, and the same evening I placed them on two lime trees in Camden Town, a 



pair on each tree, the males as high as I could reach, the females about two feet 



from the ground. I notched all their wings but did not pin them. The following 



morning, one male was in cop. with an unmarked female, whilst the one I had marked 



and also another were on the same tree. The other pair which I had marked were 



in cop. Since then I have not seen any, and do not expect to see any more this 



season, and although the evidence which I have here given seems quite satisfactory 



to me, I do not lay it down as a rule, but rather as a hint to sec if any one has had 



any idea or knowledge of the fact of the male possessing the attracting power, 



which seems quite contrary to the general rule in Lepidoptera. — H. Silcock, West 



London Entomological Society : May ith, 1877. 



A Lepidopterous enigma. — Rennic, in his " Insect Architecture," 2nd edit, ii, 

 156 (1845), after stating that he had reared three examples of TJrilus Jlavescens from 

 larvae which fed on the body of a snail (Jlelix a^persa), found in the summer of 



