174 



I^CIENTIFIC NOTES. 



Probable Parthenogenesis in Arctia mendica. — In May this 

 year I found a fine fresh ? mendica, just emerging i from the pupa, 

 and as I wanted some c?'s I kept her and tried "assembhng" the next 

 evening. This, however, was not successful, though I persisted for 

 several nights exposing her (in a "cage ") in a likely locality. As she 

 was not a first-rate specimen after this, I did not kill her, and she laid 

 a number of eggs in the box in which she was kept. Not knowing that 

 some might be fertile and others not, I put the box aside on noticing 

 that some of the eggs were shrivelled up ; but on opening it to-day I 

 found about fifteen had produced larva?, which were lying at the bottom 

 of the box dead. Now it occurs to me : — (i). Would those larvae have 

 produced imagines as if the ova had been properly fertilised (which I am 

 sure they were not) ? (2). Would the imagines, in the case of any 

 being produced, have been $ and ? as usual, or only of one sex ? 

 (3). Would they have been capable of being fertilised inter se or by 

 other specimens, or would they have inherited the parthenogenetic 

 faculty? — E. W. Bowell, Hereford. July i8//z, 1890. 



Aneurism in Nvssia hispidaria. — I have noticed a very frequent 

 occurrence of saccular distension in Nyssia hispidaria. To prevent the 

 wings adhering to the setting board when the sacs discharge, I pin upon 

 each slope of the board a strip of thick white blotting paper and use 

 braces of the same material. The result, in every case, is thoroughly 

 satisfactory. — J. Arkle, Chester. 



Aneurism in Epunda lichenea. — I have just noticed this pecu- 

 liarity in E. lichenea which I have been breeding from pupa? given me 

 by Lieut. Brown. — J. W. Tutt. October %th, 1890. 



Zyoena lonicer^ imago with head of larva. — Whilst breeding 

 a number of Z. lonicerce this summer, from pupae collected near 

 Mansfield, Notts, by Mr. Daws, two imagines emerged with the heads 

 of the larvae still unchanged. I noticed that in the Report of the 

 Guerjisey Society of Natural Science (1889), p. 158, the same form of 

 monstrosity is noted as occurring in Zyga;.na trifolii. — J. W. Tutt, 

 Westcombe Hill. August, 1890. 



Saturnia carpini cocoon with two exits. — In August last I 

 took about thirty larvae of Saturnia carpini, in Wicken Fen, feeding 

 upon meadow-sweet. I fed them up upon sloe, and twenty-three 

 turned out satisfactorily. The colouring of the cocoons is peculiar, 

 ranging from a transparent-looking white to a brick-red tint, the former 

 predominating. Three larvce taken last year on the Fen made cocoons 

 of the same white colour (one was shown at the City of London Society 

 early this year). One of my cocoons, a large white one, has two exits, 

 and appears to contain one healthy pupa. I should like to know 

 whether the white-coloured cocoons are obtained in any other locality. 

 — MiLLAis CuLPiN, 7 Warwick Terrace, Hoe Street, Walthamstow. 

 September, 1890. 



[I have in my collection a normally coloured one with two exits, 

 which contained one pupa, the moth from which died in the act of 



^ It is a well known fact that the males of certain soecies will copulate with the 

 females directly emergence takes place. If this insect had emerged in a state of 

 nature, there is the probability of immediate copulation having taken place. — Ed. 



