8 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



the bottom, which through curiosity I put under a pocket lens, 

 when to my surprise I saw a number of small larvae. This led 

 me to examine the eggs, and I found that they had all hatched. 

 Nothing could possibly have got into the box, as it was in my desk, 

 and I had almost forgotten it. Of course the larvae were all dead, or 

 I should have tried to rear them." 



Further instances will be found in The Entomoloijisi's Becord, 

 vol. i., pp. 95 and 174. 



Although, from what has been written, it will be seen that it is 

 certain that parthenogenesis does occur in Lepidoptera, yet it must be 

 confessed that the material based on true scientific experiment is not 

 large, and that many more careful observations based on the most exact 

 experiments are required. The peculiar phenomenon pi'esented is 

 worth all the patience with which the entomologist must attack this 

 subject, and he would have the reward of knowing that he had helped 

 to make clearer one of the greatest mysteries of insect life. 



The phenomenon of ])arthenogenesis can only be explained by suppos- 

 ing that the potency of the male element is handed down generation after 

 generation and that former fertilisations affect the embryo, independently 

 of the actual union which fertilises the ovum. The male element must be 

 looked upon as possessing not only a great and direct influence on the 

 development of the eggs immediately fertilised by it, l)ut also on the 

 eggs of successive issues not directly fecundated. That this is so, is 

 shown by the fact that the unfertilised egg undergoes varying conditions 

 of development short of the actual development of a perfect embryo. 

 This was foreshadowed in the section on the variation m the colour of 

 the egg (vol. v., })p. 139-141). In cases of parthenogenesis the influence 

 must be powerful enough to cause full development not only for one 

 generation, but for one or more generations beyond the one normally 

 reached, and in this way may be explained the })henomenon that some 

 species, Avhich iisually do not niultipl^^ without sexual intercourse occa- 

 sionally produce 2>arthenogenetic young, even in cases like S2)hmx li(justri, 

 Bomlnjx mori, A'c, where it could scarcely be ex]iected. It is remarkable 

 that in most orders of insects the parthenogenetic progeny is usually 

 male, but in the Psi/chidce among Lepidoptera, helotoky, or the pro- 

 duction of parthenogenetic females, alone takes place. 



I^El'l^OgPEe'l' OF R LEPITDOPl'EI^I^l' for 1894. 



By J. W. TUTT, P.E.S. 



Another year has passed, and the time has arrived for another 

 retrospect, another look into the internal workings of tliat strange human 

 mixture which makes up " the entomological world." A strange 

 mixture indeed it is, its units bound together by a common interest in 

 the handiwork of Nature, which everywhere surrounds them. 



What a great contrast has the year of grace 1894 presented to its 

 predecessor. It is true that we had a glorious spring, a lovely month 

 in March and April, when the luscious catkins of the sallow threw out 

 their ricli ])erfume into the clear bracing air, attracting crowds of flies 

 by day, still gi'eater crowds of moths by night; when thoughts of 

 T<ienloc(tmp<i miiiiosa, Parhnobia Iciicoijrapha, and even Datti/cantjxi ruhi- 

 ginea, mingled with the sweet scent of the cherry, while white pyramids 



