1877.] 137 



August, 1876 (a very worn spccimeu), and the other early in August of the present 

 year. Both are in the possession of the Eev. Mr. Waller, Vicar of Waldingfield, by 

 whose son they were captured. — J. E. Taylor, Museum, Ipswich : 3rd Oct., 1877. 



Thais rnmina captured in the Brighton market. — When I was in Brighton last 

 Saturday, Mr. Dowsett, of North Street, showed me a fine specimen of Thais rumina 

 which had recently been caught in the Brighton market. There can be no doubt 

 that the insect had been imported from the Mediterranean with fruit or vegetables. 

 — H. Goss, The Avenue, Surbiton Hill, Surrey : 11th October, 1877. 



[Our correspondent's explanation of the cause of the appearance of this beautiful 

 butterfly is no doubt perfectly correct. — Eds.] 



On the stridulation of the pupa of Thecla rubi. 



[The writer of the following had collected, in July, near Dresden, a number of 

 larvae of Lyccena Battus on Sedum telephium, and of Thecla rubi on Genista tiiic- 

 toria ; on the 20th of August, the last larva of Lyccena Battus having assumed the 

 pupa state, it occurred to Herr Schild to economise space, by putting all the pupoe of 

 Thecla rubi and Lyccena Battus together in one receptacle, and as he, with this 

 view, turned the former pupae on to a sheet of paper, he distinctly noticed a peculiar 

 noise, which emanated from the pupae. — Eds.] 



On watching them closely and separately, I was clearly satisfied that the pupa 

 of Thecla rubi, without any perceptible motion, produces a slight, short chirp, but 

 in order to hear this sound distinctly and continuously, it is best to place a number 

 of the pupae together. In the evening I could distinctly hear the chirping of my 

 twenty-five pupa3 through the gauze, which covered the vessel in which they were. 



On examining the pupae individually, I found that in the thicker ones, which 

 were probably females, I could hear the sound distinctly, but in the more slender 

 pupae, which were probably males, I could hear nothing. I also noticed that after a 

 copious watering of the earth on which they rested, all the pupae were mute, but as 

 soon as they were dry, they began to chirp again. 



My first idea was that this sound was an expression of uneasiness, because a 

 slight disturbance of their repose, by touching or blowing on the pupa; seemed to 

 make the chirping demonstration more general, but the silence of the pupa; on their 

 wet bed suggested to me another cause, which is, perhaps, more nearly connected 

 with their vital processes, but the certainty of which is only to be ascertained by 

 anatomical investigation. 



My hypothesis is that the sound arises from air being pressed and drawn in 

 through the trachea; on the abdomen and above behind the eyes. Perhaps, if the 

 dense clothing of fine bristles is for the purpose of conducting moisture inwards, 

 it is possible that with the same object, a more lively i-espiration through the tracheae 

 takes place, where the pupa is dry, but, on the other hand ceases, when this is no longer 

 the case. — F. Gr. Scihld, in the "Stettiner cntomologische Zcitung," xxxviii, 8(5 

 (1877). 



[How true it is that " there is nothing new under the sun ! " Herr Kleemann, 

 of Nuremberg, writing to the " Naturforscher," in 1774 (more than 100 years ago ! ) 

 says (Vol. iv, p. 123) : "Talking of ouisciform larva;, I must not omit to notice a 



