THE LIFE-HISTORY OF A LEPlDOPTEROUS INSECT. 5 



The result was a second and third generation of perfectly vigorous 

 and full-sized moths, without a single coition having taken place." 

 Newman adds : — " The experiments on Psi/che helix and Bomhijx mori 

 appear to have been conducted with ecjual cave. It is worthy of notice 

 that no Papilio (l)uttertly), Noctua, Geometer or Pyralis has been reported, 

 if Noctua pacta be excepted, a name evidently given in error. There 

 are Si'Hinges, lioiMBYCES, Tineina, and the remainder are of the group 

 of PsYCiiiD.E, supposed to hover between the Bombyces and Tinkina. 

 The instances recorded," and this is worthy of note, '' occur among those 

 insects whicli are most frec^uently reared from the larva, and therefore, 

 those in which such phenomena are most likel}' to be observed." 



In the Entomologist's WeeMi/ Intelligencer, vol. iii., ])p. 175 — (j, we 

 read : — " A recent writer in The Midland Quarterly Journal of the 

 Medical Sciences, in a notice of Siebold's work ' On a true Parthenogenesis 

 in Moths and Bees,' observes respecting the Solenohiu' : — " Eggs are 

 produced independent of the male iuHuenee, and the fact of such eggs 

 possessing vitality in the present state of ph^^siology can scarcely be 

 said to be marvellous. We expect that hereafter it will be proved that, 

 under certain conditions, perfect males will always be formed, and 

 sexual reproduction will take place ; but if, as each generation lasts a 

 year, it should ordinarily continue to be asexual as long as in the 

 Aphides, it would take at least from nine to eleven years before the 

 experiment was complete ; and indeed it might require much longer, 

 as we are entirely ignorant of the circumstances whicli may or may not 

 be favourable. Indeed, we may be said to have a positive proof that 

 such will Ije the case, since the male of at least one species in which 

 this parthenogenesis occurs is well known, namely, that of Solenobia 

 iuconspicuella. The larv;e of this moth are common amongst lichens, 

 near London, and well deserve more attention than they have hitherto 

 met with even from entomologists. We ourselves have bred them, but 

 only females, whilst in the allied genus Taheporia, we have frequently 

 reared both males and females of Taheporia pseudo-bomhyceUa, and 

 curiously enough, we almost feel assured that no parthenogenesis takes 

 place in this species." 



In The Substitute for 185(5 (p. 40), Sir John (then Mr.) Lubbock, 

 after mentioning the occurrence of parthenogenesis in Daphaia schaefferi, 

 appeals to entomologists to furnish him with information of any 

 instances that may have come to their knowledge of its occurrence in 

 moths, and states that Jourdan has published several. Mr. Grcgson 

 responds to this appeal (p. 77), and says : — " In reply to Mr. Lubbock's 

 enquiry, 1 have found some hundreds of a case-bearer now feeding, 

 bred from a case which never had a male near it : they are feeding 

 upon lichen." Mr. J. W. Douglas of Lee, writes: — "I have on 

 several occasions seen larvae whicli had issued from a case of Fumea 

 nitidelhi, in which, as is well known, the female deposits her eggs. 

 There is every reason to believe that these eggs were unimpregnated, 

 l)ecause I found the cases directly after they were spun up, and long 

 Ijefore the imago appeared. I am tolcraldy sure that I have had larva' 

 fr(^m cases which the larvte were carrying about when I found them 

 at P>lack Park, and to which cases no male imago had access; liut I 

 cannot tind the memorandum I made at the time, and so will not be 

 positive." 



