ON SOME RACES OF LASIOCAMPA QUERCtTS. 237 



of the numbers of the iusectd foimd aiiiong the rocks and stones, while 

 yet stiffened by the cold of the night air. How much longer it may 

 have continued I had no means of knowing. Where the butterflies 

 came from in such vast numbers and what brought tliem to such a 

 high altitude is, of course, a matter of pure speculation." 



On some races of Lasiocampa quercus. 



By J. C. WARBUEG. 



Having spent many winters on the Riviera, I had good oppor- 

 tunities of breeding the two forms of /.. (iiiciridi which occur at Cannes. 

 The one which Mr. Tutt has named L. var. tiirriilioiialis is the form 

 considered by local entomologists as the type of that part of the world, 

 and referred to locally as /.. qKcrnh; the other called />. var. spartii hy 

 these authorities was designated riburni by Guenee, Avho logically 

 refrained from mixing up a casual German aberration with a southern 

 race. 



The general colour of the hair is brown in the larva of L. var. 

 riburni, white in L. var. iiirriilionalia, and this difference makes it easy 

 to distinguish any larvte which may be found. With regard to the 

 imagines, as long as I only possessed a few, I found these also easy to 

 distinguish ; but, as my series increased, I found greater and greater 

 difficulty in the matter, until I began to doubt whether the colour of 

 the larvse was more than accidental. To set at rest my suspicions I 

 obtained pairings from various moths of both varieties which emerged 

 in 1H95 (being bred from larva? found wild). From these I obtained a 

 large number of larva^. Owing to the difficulty of keeping and feeding 

 them all separately one family of L. var. riburni larva- was kept apart 

 (labelled A) the others of both kinds were all bred together in one large 

 cage and sorted out by the colour when fullgrown, the riburxi being 

 marked ]>, the iHrridiniialis C. From these 1 obtained the following 

 specimens''- : 



A— Emerged between 28/7/y<) — 10/ 'Jjm (?) . . S'i <^ c^ '20 ? ? . . Total 42 

 B — Emerged between 5/'.»/'J5 — KJ/lO/itO .. .H </ </ '27 ? ? .. ,. 30 



C— Emerged between 'J/8/9(J — 17/10/'.)(i .. .52 <? j 1)7? ? .. „ 149 



221 



B and C were treated alike and kept out of doors a great deal. 

 A was very likely kept indoors, which would account for the earlier 

 emergence. The pupte were brought to London in May, 1896. 



From these moths 1 obtained several pairings, including the 

 crosses between L. var. mcridiuiuilis 3 nnd /,. var. riburni J . I have 

 no record of the contrary cross. The ova and larvHP obtained from 

 these pairings I shared with Mr. lUicot, who had kindly undertaken to 

 assist me in the matter, as I wished to widen the scope of the experi- 

 ments and include various othei' races of /.. (iiifrcus, namely, /.. var. 

 i^icula (of Sicilian descent) and /.. var. ralhumr (from Ai)erdeen). Mr. 

 Bacot, on his side, contributed some Doi'set /,. ijurrriin. With the 

 exception of some Swedish L. qiirrcKs [raltiinar /) larvse, all of which 

 died when half grown, and some from Paris, added later, this was the 



* Tho actual number oi J a was probably greater as specimens which spoilt 

 their wings by tiuttering were discarded. 



