96 THE entomologist's record. 



rigidly moves the femora of the hindlegs to right and left, the body 

 being swayed in the same direction. The pair under observation 

 remained paired all night, separating next morning between 6 a.m. 

 and 6.80 a.m.— J. W. Tutt. 



;ii^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Orgyia antiqua, variation of larv.15 and colouring of PUP-E. 



It is a rare pleasure to me to be able to tell my friend Dr. Chapman 

 something about entomology that he does not know, and, there- 

 fore, I am glad to be able to supply some of the information he 

 asks for in a recent number of the Record. I happen to have 

 had a large number of larvte of this species, from English eggs, 

 in 1901. As to the lateral tufts, Stainton in his Manual describes 

 them as "a slender lateral tuft on each of the 5th and 6th segments." 

 Newman {British Aloths) does not mention the lateral tufts ; nor does 

 Barrett, whose plate does not show them. Hoffmann shows them in 

 his plate and mentions them in his description. I see my note of 

 1901 is as follows: — "Lateral tufts: In the great majority of cases 

 the anterior ones whitish, the posterior blackish ; in many the anterior 

 are wanting or slight ; the hairs of these whitish ones are plumose, 

 but not tufted like the blackish ones on the 2nd and 12th segments or 

 the [posterior] lateral ones, and these lateral ones are less tufted than 

 those on the 2nd and 12th segments." Further notes are to the effect 

 that the coloui- of the four dense dorsal tufts showed the following 

 variation : — {a) white ; (b) cream-colouied ; (c) yellow ; (»/) coffee- 

 coloured ; (f) two anterior coft'ee-coloui-ed, two posterior white or 

 yellowish ; also that the general colouring was usually slaty-grey, and, 

 when the dorsal tufts, or two of them, are dark [coffee- coloured] the 

 ground colour is also darker, in fact, blackish-grey, esj^ecially on the 

 back ; the red dorsal tubercles on the 11th segment are retractile, and 

 shrink when they, or sometimes when any parts of the body, are 

 touched. These notes were made July 20th. As the larvae with 

 dorsal tufts of different colours, referred to above as {e), were mostly 

 young, I set apart thirteen of these, and, on July 28th, found a con- 

 siderable change ; live had died, and, of the remaining eight, only two 

 preserved their differentiation of colour ; of the other six, four had all 

 the four dorsal tufts coffee-coloured, and two had them all whitish. 

 Dr. Chapman asks whether English antiqua pupje are always black. 

 On this point also I have some rather full notes, from which it 

 appears that I classified my pupa?, of which I had 158, as follows : — 

 pale, 67 ; intermediate, 38 ; dark, 53. All were more or less blackish 

 down the back, and most had whitish or greenish-white colouring 

 ventrally. Of the " pale" ones, in extreme cases, the doijsal blackish- 

 brown was limited to a very small part of the first three segments 

 behind the head and to the posterior overlapping edges of the other 

 segments, the colouring there being Avidest on the back and tapering 

 towards the sides, the spiracles being alwaj^s coloured, the ventral 

 aspect greenish-white or whitish with a transverse row of blackish- 

 brown spots, scarcely visible, just below the wings, and some few 

 brownish markings about the mouth-parts and the anal extremity ; 

 the males in all cases having the dark markings more widely spread 

 than the females. The " dark " ones were very different in appear- 

 ance ; in extreme cases, dorsal and ventral aspects in the males 



