VARIATION. 57 



Structure of the cocoon of Eriogaster lanestris. — Has any 

 one studied Eriogaster laiiestris much ? Two of mine spun a common 

 cocoon and pupated therein to the detriment of one another. I sent 

 them to Mr. Tutt. I had two notes from lepidopterists saying that it had 

 happened to them with the same insect. Is it an ancestral custom 

 nearly lost ? Is there any parallel among other insects ? How 

 do they make the lid to the top of the cocoon ? It is plainly visible 

 long before the pupa emerges, and chips off with quite a clean edge. 

 The cocoon itself is made in two distinct layers ; the outer hard one 

 with the air holes in, and an inner and soft one of the texture of very 

 fine brown paper, without any holes at all. The two separate pretty 

 easily if a cocoon is pulled to pieces. I have never had time to watch 

 the process of cocoon making, but I should like to have seen the two 

 working together. The insect itself is a late emerger, generally about 

 4 o'clock, nine of mine have emerged up to date in each case in 

 batches of three, consisting of one male and two females, I was looking 

 into my pot when the last lot came, and they all emerged as nearly 

 simultaneously as I could see, so that the insect has behaved with 

 strange, if accidental, eccentricity, in my case. — G. M. A. Hewett, The 

 College, Winchester. 



r^ARIATION. 



Larentia multistrigaria vars. — I have been capturing Laretttia 

 miiltistrigaria for the purpose of getting varieties, and have got some 

 nice banded forms, and last night three very dark, one as black as 

 soot, with a few light dots round the edge. — W. Reid, Pitcaple. 

 March 24//;, 1891. 



Homceosoma saxicola, Vaughan, as a var. of H. nimbella. — 

 There can be no doubt that Ragonot, in pronouncing H. saxicola to 

 be only a variety of nimbella, expressed the opinion already formed 

 about it by not a few British entomologists. As Mr. Tutt has quoted 

 {Record, vol. i., pp. 325-326) the last half of Mons. Ragonot's note 

 in Ent. Mo. Mag., xxii., p.- 26, I should like to complete the quota- 

 tion by recalling the first half which runs thus: — "This appears to 

 be the most frequent form of jiimbella in England I have a number 

 of British nimbella from Yarmouth, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Pembroke 

 and Dublin, and none are like Continental specimens of that species." 

 At any rate, Mons. Ragonot had plenty of nimbella before him, and, 

 though he was incorrect in assigning the name saxicola to the great 

 bulk of our British specimens instead of to only a certain proportion 

 of them, there seems to me to be no doubt that in considering 

 saxicola to be a var. of nimbella he formed a perfectly correct con- 

 clusion about the matter. It is almost certain that, among his British 

 specimens, Mons. Ragonot must have had some genuine saxicola, and 

 was acquainted with the form, as he would not have treated of it 

 without consulting the original description in Ent. Mo. Mag., vii., p. 

 132 ; but it is clear that he regarded all our examples as belonging to 

 one variable species. True though it is, as Mr. Tutt says, that all 

 British nimbella are saxicola, yet it is apparently equally true that 

 hardly any of them are typical nimbella ! 



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