GEOMETRA PAPILIONARIA, LINNE. 203 



line on the forewing, and the central Ihie on hindwing. The result 

 is an insect, with but one transverse line on each wing. The seventh 

 specimen in the English collection at the British Museum is a good 

 instance. This appears to be merely the transition form, intermediate 

 between ab. herbaicaria and the type, a stepping-stone in fact, I dare 

 not say whether up or down. 



7. Ab. dcleta, n.ab. — There are, in the general collection at the 

 Natural History Museum, three specimens, numbers 6, 6 and H ; two 

 females and a male, which have the basal and second lines only. I 

 do not know whence they came, and have none like them. 



Besides these aberrations there are recorded a few other noticeable 

 forms. Sir J. T. D. Llewelyn captured in 1866-1867, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Neath, South Wales, three specimens of a rich cream 

 colour (Barrett, Lepid. Brit, hlands, vol. viii., p. 282). These, or 

 similar specimens, were exhibited at the meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of London, on April 12th, 1893. I wrote to Sir John 

 Llewelyn about them, and he informed me that he had bred the same 

 form. Mr. Capper tells me that he also bred one entirely yellow. On 

 the same page of Barrett's British Li'pidnptera, given above, is recorded 

 a specimen belonging to Mr. B. A. Bower, in which the hindwings 

 are clear smooth white except a large green blotch near the base. 



I have before me a specimen bred by Mr. Pickett, which is scarcely 

 green at all, but it is a hopeless cripple, and no doubt its want of 

 colour proceeds from malnutrition. Green moths are notoriously 

 liable to lose their colour, and we all know how necessary it is to be 

 careful to avoid the least indiscretion which may discharge the beautiful, 

 but evanescent hue. I believe that (/. papilinnaria is the least liable 

 to fade of all, and that treatment which would ruin lartearia, vernaria, 

 smaracfdaria, etc., is comparatively safe with this insect. I have alluded 

 to the use of cyanide and ammonia for killing purposes by some 

 collectors, who hold that, with due care, no harm results, others, who 

 fear these means, commonly prick with oxalic acid. I confess that I 

 have some doubt about the use of this substance, as I do not like the 

 permanent presence of a powerful acid within the thorax of the dried 

 specimens. I notice that most of the specimens of (i. />ajnlionaria in 

 the Doubleday collection, have faded to yellow at the base of the 

 wing. Of course, these specimens are more than thirty years old, and 

 one does not know how they were killed, but I certainly prefer the use 

 of '^essence of pipe.'' It is curious that Linne, giving the size of the 

 insect, compares it first with T. nrticae and afterwards with /'. braxncae,- 

 The largest I have seen are in the Doubleday collection, but they 

 scarcely attain to either dimension. 



a. papilionaria is too well-known an insect to call for the writing 

 of its life-history again. Mr. G. J. Grapes has well recorded this in 

 Kntniiiohyjist, 1889, p. 110. The larva feeds upon birch, alder, hazel, 

 and also, according to Stainton and St. John, upon beech. I do not 

 understand Linne's " Habitat in 'J'ilia.'' It may feed upon lime also. 

 I have no information as to how or where the eggs are laid in nature. 

 In captivity they are deposited singly or a few together. Mr. C. Fenn 

 records that three batches which he observed took o, 9, and 16 days 

 respectively to hatch {Entniii. AVc, vol. iii., p. 175). 



Like so many hibernating larva, these feed up slowly until the 

 leaves begin to fall. In " Practical Hints" {K)itnni. Her., xiii., p. 162) 



