146 THE entomologist's kecord. 



From his pupae in 1903 he obtained a specimen of ab. paralias, 

 Nick. I suppose the pupse resulting from the Ui,rvfe collected in 1904, 

 A\hich he retained himself, will not yet have emerged. I may say, 

 hoAvever, that I obtained also a specimen which answers m every detail 

 with his description of the above aberration. [A literal translation of 

 Nickerl's own description is published in The Xat. ?listonj of Brit. 

 Lepidnptera, iv., pp. 207-208. — Ed.] Not wishing to lose the pupae, 

 I have forced mine in a gentle heat, and have been successful with 

 all the pupps. Some emerged during the last week in March, and 

 others, subjected to exactly the same treatment, in the third Aveek in 

 April. Now, Mr. Verity in his notes discusses the occurrence of almost 

 fullgrown larvae with some about three centimetres in length. I think 

 this will be due to the period of emergence extending in nature over 

 several Aveeks, and hence the period of ovipositing o\^er the same time.* 

 The pupfe commence to soften on the third day before the exit of the 

 imago. This exit takes place, according to my obserA^ation, betAveen 

 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. 



As nearly all the imagines produced Avere females, I killed and 

 dissected tAvo immediately they dried their Avings. Inside the abdomen 

 I found that, Avith the exception of a very few, the ova were only 

 rudimentary. The question then arose in my mind Avhether this Avas 

 due to my having forced the pup^t, or Avhether even in nature (as Mr. 

 Johnson, of Gateshead, informed me) this was the case. To test this 

 I isolated one of the imagines and kept it alive in a cage. I kept it 

 alive for three Aveeks, and, at the end of that period, I found it dead 

 one morning. During the night of its death it had deposited about 

 20 ova. On dissecting it, I found that all the ova Avere fully developed. 

 Hence I conclude that the females live for some time before their ova 

 are developed. The ova were deposited singly, and, contrary to the 

 position of the ova of Smerinthus ocellata and Sphin.r lujustri, are laid 

 with the long axis upright, f In colour the ova are of bright apple- 

 green. In shape they are approximately spherical, but are not quite 

 so, and eA^en the tAvo horizontal diameters are not the same. The 

 height is l-3mm., the breadth l-2mm., and the breadth in a direction 

 at right angles to this l*lmm. At first, under a Ioav power, I Avas 

 inclined to think that the ovum Avas smooth and glossy, and even 

 under a high poAver, all that was added was a series of irregular 

 undulations giving the idea of a degenerate net-like sculpture. In 

 what AX'ould have been the meshes of the netAvork, had the network 

 been more distinct, Avere rounded prominences, Avhich showed by the 

 play of light on them that they are raised above the leA'el of the shell 

 A-ery slightly. IIoAvever, in another specimen which Avas faA'ourably 

 placed for the examination of the micropyle, I chanced to find a true 

 netAvork, resembling cells, with the ribs firm and distinct. The meshes 

 consisted of quadrilaterals and polygons Avith an indefinite number of 

 sides. Near the point at Avhich these meshes degenerate they are 

 fairly regular, Avith the length equal to the breadth. Closer to the 

 micropyle they become very elongated, and closer still, they become 

 small and irregular. The micropyle is situated at the apex of the 



* This is usual wherever the species occurs. We saw some dozens in the 

 8aas-Thal last summer of all sizes, but this difference in size means little in point 

 of time, as the larvse feed up very rapidly in the last two stadia. — Ed. 



t Compare Nat. Hi.^tory of the BritUh Lepidoptera, iv., pp. 212-213. — Ed. 



J 



