NOTES ON AMPHIDASYS BETULAKIA. 



Sd 



ance, particularly about the head, I imagined had just got through the 

 process. It was rather singular that I seldom saw an empty skin, and 

 I fancy, although I admit I never saw it done, that the larva eats it, more 

 particularly as the skins I did find looked very incomplete, the head 

 end being usually missing. Very early in life, after the third moult, 

 a difference of colour was observed, some few of those fed on lime 

 becoming green, whilst the bulk were of various shades of brown. I 

 isolated each green larva as soon as I found it, but in almost every case 

 the next change was back again to brown. Those fed on plum showed 

 a greater tendency to turn green, and several of them remained green 

 all through, and I watched with interest for the resulting moths to see 

 if any difference could be detected between them and their brown 

 brothers and sisters, but beyond the fact that six out of seven were females 

 I discovered nothing. They began to pupate in the first week of 

 July, and the last had gone by the end of the month. They werepro- 

 \dded with soft soil mixed with cocoanut fibre, but a large number did 

 not attempt to go underneath. I regarded this as rather fortunate, for 

 it enabled me to observe that pupation did not take place for several 

 days after they ceased feeding. They did not appear to occupy any 

 particular position whilst awaiting the change. Some remained doubled 

 up head and tail together, others assumed the form of the Greek ii 

 whilst others remained almost straight ; all, however, became gradually 

 shorter and thicker. As far as I could make out they did not all go 

 through the same number of skin moults. I believe some moulted 

 seven times, others eight, and others again nine times, and I suggest 

 that as the females are larger than the males, and usually, although 

 not always, the larvae which changed oftenest were the largest, it is 

 possible that the females habitually change their skins oftener than 

 the males. This conclusion is, however, to a certain extent, upset by the 

 fact that one or two larvffi which without doubt made nine sheddings of 

 skin, were very small, and, although I am not sure, I think they pro- 

 duced male moths. The box, a large American cheese box (which by 

 the bye I find very convenient in which to breed insects if the top be 

 knocked out, leaving a ring which serves to strain a piece of leno over the 

 bottom part of the box) was again kept indoors in a room which seldom 

 has a fire in it, and I fully expected to have to wait until this spring before 

 I should see anything of the perfect insects ; it was, therefore, with some 

 surprise that I found a moth out in September, and all through the 

 autumn and winter they continued to emerge at intervals. I regret to 

 have to confess that I have no exact dates for these early birds, as I 

 was continually away from home, and only found them out by chance. 

 I have three set, but the bulk of them I had not time to attend to. 

 This doubtless shows a sad lack of scientific zeal, but, on the other 

 hand, it shows that business had to come before pleasure "svith me. I 

 have arranged in the box all the set insects under their food plants, 

 and with dates. It is unfortunate that most of the lime-fed insects 

 came out crippled, especially in the hind wings, and this I attribute to 

 the fact that the damping was more irregular in the box in which 

 they were kept as pupfe. They had nothing but earth, whilst the plum 

 pupfe were dug up and put on moss, which kept damp for a longer 

 period. The set insects show eight males and four females fed on plum, 

 and three males and four females fed on lime. The bulk of the plum- 

 fed larvte produced males ; on the other hand there were more females 



