SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 55 



described by your correspondents in the February number. On the 

 loth of March, 1889, I looked at my pupae at 11 o'clock a.m. and saw 

 a Tceniocampa stabilis on the lid, the wings quite undeveloped and very 

 small. I looked at it again in the cour5e of the evening, when the 

 wings had not altered in the least. I concluded it was a cripple, 

 put it in a box and left it till the next morning, when I found the wings 

 were perfectly developed. I noticed the same process of development 

 several times with T. cruda, in one instance the under wings never 

 developed at all. — Tohn Williams Vaughan, Jun., The Skreen, 

 Radnorshire, Erwood R.S.O. 



Temperature versus Heredity in producing variation. — To 

 show the amount of cold that pupae can withstand under natural con- 

 ditions, and what marvellous vitality they possess, the following 

 observations may be interesting. In April, 1890, I took a ? Tcenio- 

 campa ifistabilis at sallow bloom, and noting her to be a very pale 

 variety I reserved her for oviposition, and she laid the remainder of her 

 eggs. I reared a number of these as far as the pupa stage ; and the 

 large garden pot in which the larvae went down was placed out of doors 

 in a shady spot with a north-east aspect, about the very coldest place I 

 could discover. The pot was exposed to the very severe temperature 

 of the recent long frost, and from its position must have frequently 

 been subjected to 30° of frost. The earth it contained, with the pupae, 

 was frozen hard for over six weeks. About January 23rd, when the 

 frost had broken up, I removed the pot indoors and sorted out the 

 pupae, of which there were about five dozen, and I was glad to find that 

 not one of them had succumb-.-d to the cold. Laid in damp sand in a 

 very cold room with eastern aspect, and where no fire is ever lighted, 

 these pupae soon began to show signs of life. The first moth was bred 

 February 3rd, and to the present date at least forty have emerged. 

 Considering the temperature of the room where they were kept, they 

 are at least six weeks in advance of their usual time. The moths bred 

 follow to a great extent the variation of the parent ? , and I have many 

 very lovely pale grey, pinkish grey, and other light forms ; among them, 

 of course, are a few of the ordinary type, the dark reddish brown, and 

 even these vary in intensity and markings. Not a single black specimen 

 has emerged, although it is a very common form here. The larvae vvere 

 fed on sallow. Here, at any rate, is a natural experiment which shows 

 that heredity beats temperature out of all calculation. If Mr. Merri- 

 field's experiments be correct, my instabilis should be certainly darker 

 than usual, or at any rate some part of the brood should be darker, but 

 the reverse is the case. This is an extreme case in point of temperature, 

 for none of Mr. Merrifield's pupje were ever frozen for six weeks, at 

 least as far as I recollect. During the same frost a i^w larvae of Cidaria 

 russata were frozen stiff" and hard, but thawed when the frost broke up, 

 and are now feeding and thriving on strawberry. In two other pots 

 standing beside the one containing the russata larvae are a lot of C. imma- 

 nata ova still unhatched, although laid before the russata ova were 

 deposited. — C. Fenn, Lee. February, 1891, 



Melanism and Temperature (A note on Mr. Fenn's experiment 

 with Tczniocampa instabilis). — Mr. Fenn {Ent. Record, vol. ii., p. 20) 

 exposed the pupag of instabilis to the great cold of last winter and bred 

 some very pale specimens, and very properly regards the result as 



