NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF AMPHIDASYS STRATARIA. i) i 



the business might have been trying to cut the tree '\own and given it up 

 half-way through ; nearly half the thickness of the tree was removed 

 from the ground to several feet up, and removed in rough chips, 

 leaving, in many cases, a ragged surface. Sometimes there was com- 

 paratively little removed. We found, however, that these trees pro- 

 vided the means of artificial illumination. Apparently, a tree has 

 first a superficial slice removed, and, after a time, the exposed wood 

 becomes excessively loaded with resin, and is in turn chipped off as 

 the required product, the same tree providing several successive crops 

 of this sort. These highly-resinous chips of pine are burnt in a 

 circular iron grid, supported on a stand about 8ft. from the floor, and 

 give a very brilliant light ; frequent replenishment is, however, neces- 

 sary. They give off much smolie also, but being placed by the tire in the 

 great chimney corner, this is no evil. The fireplaces, wood being the 

 fuel, are flat hearths, under a wide chimney, perhaps 14ft. by 6ft., 

 narrowing to perhaps 6ft. x 1ft. at the outlet, and allow of seats at 

 both sides, on the pattern still to be found in old English houses. 

 The other usual illuminant was a tin or earthenware vessel of oil, 

 with a wick lying in the spout, precisely the same construction as may 

 be seen in any museum of Roman antiquities. 



We had expected to have to make a long detour in making our 

 way home, or else to face a prolonged diligence journey. It so 

 happened, however, that the railway from Teruel to Saragossa was 

 opened during our stay, and so placed a railway-station withm sixteen 

 miles of us, with a direct road home. Even so, the journey was a 

 slow one. The opening of this railway brings this very interestmg 

 country, both Albarracin and Bronchales, which are entomologically 

 the most important, within a few miles of a railway, running directly 

 from France by Bayonne, Pamplona, and Saragossa. From Noguera 

 to Teruel there is a good road down the Guadalaviar valley past 

 Albarracin, and served by a diligence. There is already a project even 

 to bring a railwciy from Teruel to the neighbourhood of Bronchales, 

 where mining is becoming a very active industry. Without this, 

 however, the district is now really very accessible, as near London, 

 indeed, as much of the Tyrol, for example, and more so than Norway. 

 It will not, tlierefore, perhaps remain much longer so unvisited by 

 British entomologists. 



[To he concluded.) 



Notes on the breeding of Amphidasys strataria. 



By J. C. DOLLMAN. 

 The ova are laid in irregular groups, at least, in captivity. Each 

 egg is oval in form, with a very shiny surface, and covered with 

 honeycomb-like markings in distinct relief. The colour is olive-grey, 

 turning to a dark umber-green three or four days before emergence. 

 The young larvae appeared on May Brd, and were at first about ^ inch 

 in length. The head, large and squarish in form, being dark sienna 

 in colour, and shuiy in appearance; the body was of a dull green-umber 

 in colour, and heavily wrinkled transversely. Immediately behind the 

 head was a sharp yellowish-white line, like a collar, and from this 

 down the centre of the thoracic segments a broader longitudinal line 

 of the same colour. On the dorsal region of each of the abdominal 

 se"'ments were two shurl luuiiitudiucil marks extending to llie anal 



