SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 269 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES & OBSERVATIONS. 



Notes on the Breeding op Ephyra orbicularia. — A few notes 

 on the extraordinarily short time occupied in breeding this sj^ecies from 

 egg to imago may be of interest, it being my first expei'ience of so 

 rapid a completion of the life history of a species. The eggs (from New- 

 Forest parents) were received by me on the 2nd August last, and 

 were then of a coral red colour. Two days later, namely on Wednes- 

 day evening the 4th, as I noticed some of the eggs had commenced to 

 hatch out, I placed them in a large linen sleeve on a sallow bush 

 growing here in my garden. The only other protection I gave them 

 was to place a temporary wooden covering above the sleeve to run off 

 rain. Before the end of a week I noticed that the larvjB were grow- 

 ing very rapidly, the latticed green markings showing very clearly, and 

 were quite a quarter of an inch long. They continued to develop at 

 this fast rate until Monday the 14th, when two had changed to dove 

 colour, and had attached themselves to the inside of the sleeve much in 

 the fashion that many butterflies affect in pupation, and as their 

 colour was waning I looked for an early change to the puj)al stage. I 

 had not long to wait, as this took place on Wednesday, the 16th, so that 

 the time from hatching out to pupation occujiied exactly three weeks. 

 During the following days I removed these two j^upte, with others that 

 had since turned, from the sleeve, and, still keeping them in the garden, 

 I found yesterday, the 10th September, that the first two pupae were 

 evidently on the point of emergence. I consequently removed them 

 indoors, and was gratified to find towards evening two fine females at 

 rest on the muslin side of the cube-shaped cover that I had placed over 

 the pupte. The time thus occupied from the egg to the jDcrfect state 

 was exactly 39 days, a " record " as far as my own experience extends. 

 Doubtless the tropical heat of August and an abundance of food were 

 the main causes of hastening on the larval stage of the sj^ecies under 

 notice.— S. Walker, 23, Portland Street, York. September 11th, 1893. 



Notes on certain species of Vanessa. — V. atalanta larva3 have 

 been abundant here from the beginning of June to the present, though 

 not so plentiful in July as in June, August, and September. I brought 

 in a dozen of the smallest I could find one day this week, and have 

 two at least that I think cannot be butterflies before the middle of 

 November, as gi'owth will be retarded when the weather grows colder. 

 As an egg laid on May 4th was a butterfly about July 7th, I cannot 

 consider the present larvre to be from hybernated butterflies, all of 

 which seemed to disappear early in June. I saw the first fresh 

 atalanta on July 4th, and by July 9th they were very common. In 

 July, 1889, atalanta larvae were common ; towards the end of that 

 month a friend wrote asking for some, but in the first week of 

 August, though I searched carefully for several days, I could not 

 find one. On September 20th I found one, and on October 6th another 

 not half grown. Tlie former pupated in October, and a perfect 

 l)utterfly appeared in November ; the latter pupated about No- 

 vember 20th, and the imago appeared on December 25th or 26th. I 

 was from home those two days, but found it on the morning of 

 December 27th with crippled wings. V. to were on the wing in April 

 this year. Larvas plentiful in June, after which all were gone. I 



