1905.] 105 



voracious during uiid-winter, but some of them appeared to have 

 laroer appetites than the others, and to grow faster. 



On March 21st, the corrugated paper in all the breeding cages 

 was examined, and the tubes were carefully opened, and I was sorry 

 to find many dead and shrivelled bodies, so many indeed that out of 

 about two hundred larvae that were alive and well at the beginning of 

 October only eighty remained. Some of these were now approaching 

 full growth, and were removed to moderately large flower-pot breeding 

 cages filled with a mixed compost with chopped moss and cocoa-nut 

 fibre on the surface for the larvae to pupate in, a wide-mouthed bottle 

 for food buried to its neck in the earth, and with the usual wire hood 

 and muslin cover. Fresh pieces of rolled corrugated paper were tied 

 in an upright position to the wires of the frame. 



On April 13th, as several of the larvae were now apparently full 

 grown, I examined the pieces of corrugated paper again, and found 

 that two larvae were spinning cocoons composed of bits of paper and 

 silk in the tubes, so they were taken out and put in a box with seme 

 moss, and all the pieces of corrugated paper were removed from the 

 breeding cage By the end of May most of the larvae had disappeared, 

 and of the few that remained some were still small. 



When full grown the larvae retired beneath the surface and spun 

 a fairly tough cocoon composed of silk and pieces of chopped moss 

 and particles of earth, and in this changed to ordinary Aoe^««-shaped 

 pupae of a bright, shining, reddish-brown colour. The pupa stage 

 lasted from four to six weeks, and a few days before the moth emerges 

 the pupa I had removed from its cocoon for the purpose of watching 

 began to deepen in colour, and the day before the moth came forth 

 had become of a fuscous-leaden hue, with eye coverings nearly black. 



On June 5th the first moth emerged, a fine typical specimen, and 

 the offspring of a yellow female, ab. lutea, Tutt. From this date up 

 to July 15th, twenty-seven were bred, of which eleven were the red 

 ab. riifct, Tutt, the others being all more or less typical, and not one 

 of them in any way resembling pallens. The parents were, one 

 typical, one ab. rufa, and one ab. lutea. Several ab. rufa were bred 

 from each parent, but not one ab. lutea, which seems to be a rare 

 variety. 



I had a small brood of the larvae of L. pallens feeding at the same 

 time as those of favieolor, and was able to compare them at various 

 stages of their growth, but up to the time of their becoming half 

 grown there was not much difference between them, excepting per- 

 haps that the latter always seemed to be generally of a warmer 



