272 THE entomologist's record. 



many pairings occurred, none settled down in the normal manner, and 

 no fertile eggs were laid. I have called this the result of a change of 

 constitution, not necessarily disease, pardy because precisely the same 

 procedure has always occurred in my hands with sfr/^osa, and this, with 

 moths from captured larvae. The curious point, however, in the case 

 of a/f/t is, that in previous years, hardly a specimen departed, even in a 

 slight degree, from the normal type, whilst this year, about a third of 

 the specimens differ, more or less, either in suffusion of the pale areas 

 with darker scales, or in variation in the stigmata, generally in the 

 direction of disappearance of the orbicular one. The variation and 

 the failure to breed may be fortuitous coincidences, or there may be a 

 causal connection between them. That the latter is the case is pro- 

 bable, from the record of other instances of a similar character. I am 

 able to add another to these in the case oi Arctia. caia. 1 had some 

 eggs sent me from a race that was producing vars. These eggs were 

 smaller than eggs laid by a normal female, in the proportion of about 

 7 to 8 in diameter, and, though supposed to be fertilised, not one of 

 them hatched ; and my correspondent informs me that the result of his 

 procedure is to secure a number of varieties, but to lose the race in the 

 third or fourth generation. — T. A. Chapman, Hereford. December, 1890. 



Holes in Wings of Leptdoptera. — I believe that holes in the 

 wings are always the result of injury to the pupa, just after casting the 

 larva skin. I remember, on one occasion, observing this moult, and 

 noting a particle of sawdust falling on the larva, where the wings after- 

 wards covered it in, and that the resulting moth had a hole in the wing 

 at this point. As I record this from memory, after a lapse of some 

 thirty years, it is possible that I have made the observation a more 

 distinct one than it was in reality, but I know positively that from some 

 such observation, I have ever since regarded holes, especially in the 

 under wings, as due to injury from particles of dirt getting between the 

 wings and the larval body at this critical period. — T. A. Chapman, 

 Hereford. 



PuPiE in a common cocoon. — While rearing some larvre of Bombyx 

 neustria two years ago, I noticed two of the larvre spun a common 

 cocoon. The forthcoming moths were in no way malformed ; their 

 sexes I forget. — R. M. Prideaux, Vyvyan Terrace, Clifton, Bristol. 

 December 27//^, 1890. 



Temperature and Variation. — In the observations made in the 

 last number of the Eniomologisfs Record, on my published experiments 

 designed to ascertain the causes of darkness of colouring in some lepi- 

 doptera, I think you have given me credit for views of wider application 

 than any that I am conscious of having given expression to. I am too 

 conscious of my want of a sufficiency of exact knowledge on the sub- 

 ject, to have attached myself to any exclusive theory as to these causes. 

 The variations in the colouring of le|ndoptera are often associated with 

 pa' ticular climates, seasons and habits, and it seems to me more than 

 probable that there are several quite different causes for such variati ms ; 

 protective requirements and hereditary tendencies being among them. 

 But I think there can be no doubt that temperature is one cause. I 

 laid before the Entomological Society on the 3rd inst., some facts 

 v/hich not only confirm in every way the view previously indicated, 



