SCIENTIFIC NOTES, 161 



since it is the one apparently which most certainly attains the object, 

 and is most easily adopted ? The object in view is one for which no 

 price can be too extravagant if it be necessary to attain it. It is 

 certain that the moth has no other object in life of equal importance, 

 and, therefore, Mr. Reid must suppose this extravagant price to have 

 been paid for something less valuable. Mr. Reid's note induces me to 

 mention a point that occurred to me before, but which I did not go 

 into, as it is purely theoretical at present, but it has practical bearings 

 in view of such points as Mr. Reid has raised. The point is that it 

 would be almost impossible for an apterous female to regain her wings, 

 should she want them, yet it is quite possible for the descendants of 

 such a species to have no necessity for such apterousness. Nyssia 

 lapponaria, according to Mr. Reid's view of its habits, might very well 

 be such a species. Whether it be so or not I know too little of its 

 habits to guess. Could an apterous female regain her wings ? She 

 could not do so by natural selection gradually increasing their size, 

 as they would be of no use for flight till fully re-developed, and, in the 

 interval, natural selection would have nothing to act on. They might, 

 where their rudiments still exist, under conceivable circumstances, be 

 developed into special organs of sensation, or even into, say, swimming 

 paddles, but not into wings. They might be regained per saltum, by 

 inheritance from the male, but this would be an occurrence of the 

 greatest possible rarity, and very unlikely to occur at a moment when 

 it could be utilised." — Ed.] 



Pupal ecdysis of Abraxas grossulariata. — On x\pril 17th, 1903, 

 at 4.5 p.m., I observed a white substance protruding from the head of 

 an A. (jroassidariata larva which had ensconced itself three or four 

 days previously in a silken hammock in the upper left-hand corner of 

 a breeding-box. The box being four feet above the level of my eye, 

 I at first concluded that the cocoon of a parasitic dipterous larva was 

 extruding itself, but the next moment, remembering that the (possu- 

 lariata larva resulted from the egg of a female reared in 

 confinement, I realised the impossibility of my first theory, and, 

 procuring a pair of steps I perched myself on the top of them and 

 watched the lepidopterous larva shuffle ofl" its larval skin. This 

 process it completed at 4.22 p.m., exactly 17 minutes after I began my 

 observations. Probably about a quarter of the transformation was 

 accomplished when I first noticed what was going on, and I think we may 

 reasonably infer that the pupal ecdysis in this species is accomplished in 

 from 20 to 25 minutes. The breaking of the larval skin seemed very rapid 

 as I watched it, but there was no wriggling till 4.20 p.m., when the larva 

 (or rather pupa), turning its tail away from me, wriggled violently, 

 but ineftectually, to free itself entirely from the larval skin. This, 

 however, it succeeded in doing two minutes later by the help of 

 another wriggh? possibly rather more violent. The remains of the 

 larval skin were not altogether thrust out of the silken web, as often 

 happens in this species, but remained close to the anus of the pupa. 

 The colour of the pupa was now a dull white with hardly any trace of 

 coloured bands. How soon it assumed the usual (coloration of the 

 pupal stage in this species I am not able to say as I had not the 

 leisure to observe its development, but the darker bands were plainly 

 visible at half-past ten the same night. — (Rev.) G. H. Raynor, M.A., 

 Hazeleigh Rectory, Maldon, Essex, April 20th, 1903. 



