PRACTICAL niNTS. 113 



edge of the patcli," etc. The same lepidoi)terist has also found larvae 

 of Pancalia lemcenhoeckeUa feeding in the petioles of the leaves of Viola 

 hirta. 



Mr. Bankes questions the right of Butalis dissimilella, H.-S., to be 

 considered British, and states that an odd undetermined specimen of 

 Butalis was recorded l)y Mr. Meyrick, from Newbury, in the Ent. Mo. 

 Mag. of 1875 as possibly dissimilella. Then in the Index of Vol. xiv. 

 of that Magazine, dissimilella a})peared without a query ; hence its 

 present inclusion in some of oixr Exchange lists. As it is not included 

 in any text-book on British entomology, and only appears in dealers' 

 Exchange Lists, we fail to see that there is yet much cause for alarm, or 

 that the slip in the Index of the Ent. Mo. Mag. adds it to the British 

 fauna, nor do we suppose that anyone Avho collects Micro-le})idoptera 

 scientifically, supposes that it is a British insect. It is well, though, 

 that Mr. Bankes has pointed this out to our Exchange List makers. 



Practical hints. 



The Breeding of Bombyx rubi and Spiloso3ia fuliginosa. — During 

 Septeml)er last I noticed a number of line and apparently full-fed larvas 

 of Boinhijx rubi lying about on the heather at Windermere, so I deter- 

 miiied to make another attempt at breeding them, having previously 

 alwaj's failed. I am happ}' to say that this time my efforts have proved 

 more successful. I -will simply lay before you an account of my experi- 

 ments with this caterpillar, and also with that of Spilosoma fuliginosa, a 

 number of which I also found. My idea was to keep the larvae out of 

 doors, and exposed as much as possiljle to the elements of autumn and 

 winter, till they had been well frozen, and then to l>ring them into 

 sudden warmth. I accordingly planted a cucumber frame with large 

 sods of living heather and grass combined, into which I placed rather 

 more than 150 larvfe of B. rubi and about 30 Spilosoma fuliginosa. I had 

 two large pieces of glass taken out of the middle of the frame and 

 replaced by j^erforated zinc, so as to keep the temperature inside the 

 frame as nearly as possible uniform with that outside, and also in this 

 one place to let in the rain. The larva? spread all over their enclosure, 

 and fed up well to the end of the month, when I was obliged to go 

 away from home, and leave them to the tender mercies of the gardener. 

 I returned to Windermere about Decemljer 10th. The snow, which 

 had been lying for some time, owing to the frost, was just beginning to 

 thaw. On looking into my ciicumber frame, I found a good deal of the 

 heather dead, but still plenty of fresh, green shoots ; there were also 

 some eight or ten dead " fox " caterpillars lying on the surface, but I con- 

 cluded that they had not been dead long as there was no mould about. 

 I carefully tore to bits a small piece of one of the sods, and found three 

 rubi and two fuliginosa snugly curled nv like dormice : these I took 

 and placed in a box containing some damp moss, and resting on the 

 gTcen-house pijjes. I fastened to the lid of the box a small Fahrenheit 

 thermometer, which registered pretty constantly between 80'-' and 90"^ 

 A few moments after being subjected to this temperatui'e, the larvaj 

 were walking about the Ijox in a most lively manner. In four days 

 two of the rubi began to spin, and assumed the pupal stage on tjae 

 seventh, but the third, which did not appear so healthy a caterpillar, 



