LIFE-HISTORIES. 145 



like 80 seconds. How long this circling had been going on before I 

 saw them, of course I do not know. The circling is obviously an 

 excellent method of ensuring the use of the androconial scent in 

 fascinating the female. — T. A. Chapman. 



■ Courtship habits of Aglais urticje. — On May 16th, I was deeply 

 interested in watching the courtship of Aglais urticae. The two 

 butterflies were flying about and settling on nettles. The male took 

 up a position behind the female, with wings outspread and quivering, 

 and immediately commenced to tap the anterior wings of tbe female 

 with his antenna?, one on either side of the thorax. The tapping 

 was fairly rapid, about 96 to the minute, both antenna? working 

 simultaneously. When the female flew, he pursued her closely, and 

 always settled again in exactly the same position behind, and repeated 

 his tapping. Whenever the female jerked her wings up and down 

 above her back, he was very sharp in getting his antenna? out of the 

 way, so as not to get them caught between her closing wings, but was 

 ever ready to resume his tapping the instant it was possible for him to 

 do so. Whether his suit was accepted I cannot say, as they flew 

 away, and I lost sight of them. — J. F. Bird, The Nurtons, Tintern, 

 Monmouthshire. May 21st, 1907. 



On the hybernation of Apatura iris and A. ilia. — Is it commonly 

 known that the hybernating larva? of these species vary somewhat in 

 colour according to the position taken up the purpose of hyber- 

 nation ? I have taken young larva? of these on several occasions in 

 different winters in the Bavois woods, and always remarked that, on 

 green wood the hybernating larva? are green, on red wood, red, and on 

 grey wood, grey ; I placed several little batches into the poison-bottle 

 for a few minutes and let them dry, so I have constant evidence of 

 this assertion. I may add that, in raising the larva? in sleeves ab ovo, 

 with plenty of room, the imagines are uniformly small in size. I have 

 never remarked any tendency to partial double- broodedness in either of 

 these species in Switzerland. I have taken females of both at the end 

 of June, and persuaded them to lay on Salix capraea, in my little 

 garden, but, in spite of warmth, and even attempted forcing, could 

 never get them beyond the regular hybernating stage in the autumn. — 

 P. A. H. Muschamp, F.E.S., 20, Chemin des Asters, Geneva. May 

 20th, 1907. 



J^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARYjE, &c. 



Pyrameis atalanta double-brooded. — I have evidence that this 

 species is, at all events occasionally, double- brooded in nature. On 

 August 18th, 1895, at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, I witnessed a very 

 fresh specimen lay an egg upon nettle, which duly produced a butterfly 

 later on (October 7th), at a time when the species was appearing 

 abundantly at large. The parent specimen was captured, to make 

 sure as to its condition, and, apart from the entirety of the wings 

 (which may always be somewhat a matter of "luck"), there was no 

 mistaking the absolute freshness of the red and black colours for those 

 of a hybernated specimen, the former soon becoming brick-red, and 

 the black fading to a dingy sepia, these changes taking place under 

 dark and dry cabinet conditions, and, of course, far more quickly under 

 natural exposure. Black, indeed, seems one of the least stable colours, 



