LIFE-HISTORIES. 157 



past season, 1900, has been a record one in this district for pupae of 

 Aeherontia atropos ; on October 18th, 1900, I recorded that some 150 

 had been obtained by me, after that date my supply was further 

 increased by 34, making a total of 184 ; I also know of a friend who 

 procured 82. I have been, I think, very successful in rearing 62 perfect 

 imagines and 15 cripples, considering the following facts : — The pupae 

 were invarial)ly brought to me by boys at work in the potato-fields, 

 who adopted the crude means of conveying them to me in their 

 hands, paper-bags, &c. ; often after two or three had been handed 

 to me in this manner a boy would suddenly thrust his hands into his 

 pockets and produce one or two more, whilst many of the pupae were 

 injured by the potato-diggers, or in some other way, and consequently 

 had to be thrown away as useless. The boys evidently noticed that I 

 did not reward them for damaged ones and would draw my attention 

 to the lively individuals with the remark that " This wriggles well," at 

 the same time administering a good pinch to make it move ; of course 

 I tried to reduce this roughness by telling them to be very careful 

 with the next they obtained, but, as a gang of pickers would number 

 60 or 80, my admonitions were lost, as the same one seldom came the 

 next time. One farmer told me that the fact of my rewarding the pickers 

 for " Those brown things " was detrimental to the expeditious picking of 

 his crop, for they paid more attention to them than to his potatoes and 

 sometimes doubled their wage through them, so plentiful were they. 

 Considering the above facts, my result must, I think, be looked upon as 

 very satisfactory. My method of forcing was simplicity itself, the 

 mere lying of the pupae on slightly damped moss and placing them 

 on the kitchen mantelpiece. After having tried various methods of 

 forcing the pupfe in a moist heat (all more or less very unsatisfactory), 

 I have quite decided that very slight moisture is necessary to force 

 them successfully. In fact, I almost think they would force in any 

 temperature of 60°F, to 70°F., practically dry, if it were commenced 

 early enough, say September or October, or as soon as the pupae are 

 disturbed from the ground. The above views I know are contrary to 

 all recognised methods, but the fact of my rearing 77 imagines from 

 184 pupfe, after taking into account the manner in which they were 

 obtained, is, indeed, justification for my belief. I know of two 

 collectors here who have tried year after year various moist heat 

 treatments, but cannot boast of a series of six specimens between 

 them yet, although they have experimented upon dozens of pupre. 

 In the case of my friend who had 82 this season, so disgusted had he 

 become by his previous forcing efforts that he decided to keep them in 

 a cool situation, trying as much as possible to imitate their natural 

 surroundings, the result of this has been a total loss of the entire 82 

 by this date, February 20th, thus having no single chance left for a 

 natural emergence later. I am by no means alone in my success with 

 a tolerably dry treatment, Messrs. Mousley and Hipwell both having 

 reared a good number by this method. It is quite easy to distinguish 

 during the day the ones that Avill emerge at night, the wings dry away 

 from the wing-cases and the yellow and blue-black marking of the 

 body is quite easily discernible through the pupal skin. In no case 

 did a single specimen emerge before evening, the usual time being 

 between 10 p.m. and 12 p.m. Immediately on emergence the imago 

 emits the excrement from its body, and in several cases it was noticeable 



