LIFE-HISTORIES. 97 



uniformly black, except for three whitish dorsal tubercles ; and the 

 females uniformly black, except that they were slightly whitish 

 towards the sides. — F. Mekrifield, F.E.8., 24, Vernon Terrace, 

 Brighton. December SOtli, 1904. 



Variation in larv.?: of Abraxas grossulariata and AR(iYNNis aglaia. — 

 The black larvfe of Abra.ras i/rdssiilariata, mentioned by Dr. Riding {antm, 

 xvi., p. 295), are exceedingly abundant here, about six miles south of 

 Newcastle. They occui' along with the type-form in the same gardens. 

 An exceedingly beautiful intermediate form occurs, in which only the 

 red of the normal larva^ and the black occur. Another intermediate 

 form also occurs, in which the main colouring is black, but an inter- 

 rupted subdorsal line is seen, consisting of white dashes. These 

 usually only produce typical imagines, but larv* of the black form 

 from one garden here tend to produce imagines with the left forewing 

 considerably blacker than the right. T bred one specimen this year 

 with a broad black band along the costa of the left wing. Two years 

 ago I sent some of these black larvje to a friend in Italy, and he bred, 

 in April, some half-dozen black imagines. (Is this a clue to the 

 production of the dark aberrations '?) I noted with interest Dr. 

 Chapman's note upon the black larvte of Arf/i/nnis aijlaia, found by him 

 in Spain. Here we get the larva; of A. cKjlaia in some abundance. In 

 fact, in 1902, we got some 60 larvae. The noteworthy feature about 

 them was that, with the exception of the red dots upon the spiracular 

 line, they were jet black. AYe looked in vain at each instar for the 

 bright yellow lines, figured and described in the usual text-books ujDon 

 the lepidoptera, for they never appeared. My larva^ produced typical 

 males, but the females were considerably lighter than usual. The 

 imagines expanded upon the average two-thirds the size of a series I 

 have from Sussex. This may have been due to being reared in 

 captivity, but would otherwise only be in keeping with our usual 

 experience here in the size of the imagines of other insects. — 

 J. W. H. Harrison, B.Sc, The Avenue, Birtley, R.S.O., Durham. 

 Xin-eiiiher 21th, 1904. 



Efi(is of Lepidoptera. — (ht/iasia macUcnta. — Eggs laid October 22nd 

 on the bark of beech, and, in captivity, on sides of chip box. They 

 are laid in small batches of from one to ten. General shape : Almost 

 spherical, but so very much flattened at the base that they form not 

 much more than half a sphere. Length : breadth : : 4 -.2^. (ieneral 

 riilniir : Beautiful iridescent cream when laid, with whiter and 

 brighter concave pits ; changing to a deep chocolate about October 

 2Hth (six days later). S/nrial niarkini/s : At the equator there are 

 about 30 to 33 longitudinal ribs raised very prominently, and zig- 

 zagging to meet the transverse ribs. These latter are less prominently 

 raised ; but where the longitudinal and transverse ribs meet there is a 

 special increase in the amount raised, so that the pits between the 

 ribs, instead of being well-marked hexagons, are almost circular. The 

 longitudinal ribs running up to the micropyle unite in twos and fours 

 alternately, so that at the edge of the micropylar area they are only 

 ten or eleven in number. Each of these ten or eleven hits a petal- 

 shaped depression (ten or eleven in number). These depiessions, 

 looked at from above, very much resemble the petals of a flower. 

 The micropyle itself is dinldbj raised from this stellate 

 depression, and is considerably darker than the general colour. It 

 •consists of a ring of from ten to twelve pear-shaped pits (1 had three 



