28 THE entomologist's record. 



ragged state; still, as the Adam and Eve of other generations, I have 

 brought their battered bodies up to-night in a box to show you. 

 Whether the female had laid most of her eggs before she came into 

 my possession, or not, I do not know ; anyway she gave me only 

 16, of which 15 hatched, 14 pupated, and 13 emerged as perfect insects. 



I made few if any observations on this brood of larvte, but before the 

 perfect insects came out in the following spring I had determined to do 

 my best to continue the breed, and note results. The larv* were fed 

 on lime, and the pupte were kept indoors during the winter. The first 

 imago, a male, put in an appearance on March 10th, 1894 ; another, 

 likewise a male, came out next day ; these were the Cain and Abel of 

 my moth family ; a female appeared on the 13th, three more 

 females on April 8th, and the last of the batch turned up a few days 

 after — my business taking me much from home, I am unable to say 

 exactly on what day. I was most unlucky in getting them to pair. 

 When a male came out there was no female, and vice versa, and it was 

 not until the 12th and 18th insects emerged, which they did nearly 

 together and fortunately proved to be male and female, that I suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining fertile eggs ; these were laid on April 19th, and 

 hatched on the 11th and 12th of May. There were a considerable 

 number of them, over 500 ; the bulk of them were laid at night, or 

 rather, I think, in the early morning, as I could see very few up to 



II p.m. on the 18th, and found a large quantity at 8 a.m. on the 19th ; 

 they were of a dull light green when laid, a good deal lighter and a 

 little larger than those of Bislon hirtaria, oval in shape, with longi- 

 tudinal grooves ; they were stuck to the leno cover of the box, most of 

 them being a little raised at one end, but many quite on their sides. 

 They soon began to show a depression in one side, and by the 12th or 

 13th day looked very shrivelled, and by the 14th day I fancied I could 

 detect a dark spot in each, but the alteration in colour was very slight 

 until a day or two before they hatched, when they became quite leaden 

 in hue. The larva ate its way out near the end of the qqq, but 

 I did not observe that it made much of a meal oft' the shell, con- 

 tenting itself with gnawing its way out and immediately walking ofi ; 

 it was extremely active, getting along at a great rate. In colour it 

 was almost black, and with a pocket lens I could see no sign of lumps 

 or bumps of any kind, but I observed that the head was not notched. 

 At the slightest jar the young larvre let themselves drop by a thread. 

 They were divided into two lots, one placed on lime and the other on 

 plum leaves, but did not appear to eat anything for some hours after 

 they were hatched, when they settled down to business. Those on 

 plum did not do at all well, and fully three-fourths died within the 

 first week, but those on lime did well. Was this because their parents 

 had been fed on the same food during their larval state ? They shed their 

 first skin in about four days, the other moults taking place at intervals 

 of seven to eight days. The notch in the head did not begin to appear 

 until the third moult, when, however, it was very slight, but became 

 more and more marked at each moult. The larva spun a few threads before 

 shedding its skin, and attached itself to them by its prolegs, bent its 

 body into the form of a note of interrogation, and remained quiescent 

 for several hours. I was unfortunate in not being able to catch a 

 single individual in the act of taking off its overcoat, but I saw 

 many in the early morning hours, which, from their bleached appear- 



