SOME BUTTERFLIES OF ECLEPENS. 103 



young larva has fed. As I have said, the circumference of this patch 

 is cut nearly through, and, the inner bark having been eaten away, 

 contraction takes place, which draws the cap slightly below the sur- 

 face of the surrounding bark, and here it remains until displaced by 

 some cause, or pushed away by the insect on emergence. 



As a matter of fact, it is only in stout and straight wood that the 

 cap is able to maintain its po&ition, apparently, for, in the majority of 

 cases that I saw, the cap was absent and the orifice of the mine open. 

 This is often caused. I fancy, in young wood especially, by the weak- 

 ening of the branch at the spot where the larva has commenced to 

 feed. This results in the branch bending slightly towards that side, 

 with a consequent horizontal fold in the bark on both sides of the 

 circular patch, which displaces the cap and causes it to fall off. 



The mines may be found at all heights from the ground, varying 

 from one to six feet, and, I fancy, generally on the side of a hedge 

 facing the sun. 



The larva? are terribly liable to be " stung," and a large majority 

 of the mines that I opened contained either ichneumon pupa? or pupa- 

 cases. Some mines, when opened, had evidently been vacated by the 

 larva?. They contained no signs of any pupa-case, and were generally 

 comparatively short. As Mr. Bankes noticed, the larva clearly some- 

 times voluntarily shifts its quarters and forms a new mine. 



Larval Habits of Trochilium crabroniforme. 



Ry PERCY C. REID. 



Since sending you my notes on the larva? of Trochilium andrenaeforme 

 I happened to be searching here for some larva? of T. crabroniforme, and 

 I was much interested to find three or four instances in which they, too, 

 had a " cap " over the orifice of their mines. Of course one generally 

 collects the larva? of this species from the ends of cut sallow poles, and, 

 therefore, has no occasion to notice the orifice of the mine, but it so 

 happened with me that there were no sallow-poles handy, and I, there- 

 fore, pulled up bodily some old sallows growing along a ditch-side, and 

 thus noticed the " caps." So far as I can see they are practically 

 identical with those of 7'. andrenaeforme, and are evidently formed in 

 the same way, i.e., by the young larva feeding in a circular way 

 beneath the bark ; but, in this instance, the bark apparently not bein" 

 so thick as that of Viburnum lantana, the "cap " had not become so 

 depressed nor so distinctly defined as in those I have seen of T. 

 andrenaeforme. 



Some Butterflies of Eclepens— Canton Vaud. 



By FRANK G. LOWE, M.A., F.E.S. 

 I have been asked repeatedly, where is Eclepens ? How do yon spell 

 it? How is it pronounced ? 1 will endeavour to reply to the first of 

 these questions— the matter of spelling is answered al the same time — 

 the question of pronunciation 1 leave to individual taste, which will 

 not subject this classical locality to any worse fcn ban other 



"foreign" places on the tongue of the Britisher. Eclepens is a, 

 station on the Jara-Sirhplon rail, about midway between Yverdon and 

 Lausanne, where there is a little inn, a brick-kiln, and a saw-mill. 



