SCIENTlElC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 149 



not interfered with. I may say that we have had very few wasps in 

 thislocahty this autumn. — J. Mason, Clevedon Court I^odge. October 

 21st, 1895. 



Partial double-broodedness of Pericallia syringaria. — From a 

 female /'. si/riiii/aria I obtained eggs on -Tune 25th. From these five 

 imagines have already emei'ged, riz., three females and two males ; 

 the rest of the brood are in the larval stage and are evidently about to 

 hybernate. — (Major) R. B. Robertson, Coxhorne, near Cheltenham. 

 Ortnhrr 25th, 1895. 



Hybernation of the female moth. — In reply to the statement of 

 the cause of hybernation in the female only (p. 56), I would suggest 

 that it may be related to the habits of egg-laying. The male is shorter- 

 lived than the female, and dies often soon after copulation. If this 

 latter act took place late in the year, the fecund female might hyber- 

 nate during interrupted oviposition. It appears that J Aclicnnitia 

 atrojKi.s migrate only, the males perishing after copulation. The phen- 

 omena of prolonged life in the female is undoubtedly connected with 

 the preservation of the species. The haAvk moths, which deposit their 

 eggs singly are longer lived than the spinning moths, which deposit 

 theirs in clusters. Case-bearing moths, in which the female never 

 leaves the sack, the eggs being laid in a mass, are short-lived. I am 

 not acquainted with the facts as to the habit of egg-laying in JJasi/jiolia 

 tciiijili, but if the female generally passed the winter, the male perishing 

 in the autumn, it seems probable that the egg is not laid until spring, 

 or that the process of oviposition is arrested by the temperature before 

 it is completed. — A. Radcliffe Grote, A.M. 



Wing-clothinct in the Lepidoptera. — Prof. Vernon L. Kellogg 

 finds on the wings of the Hepialidfs and Micropterygides a covering of 

 fine hairs, and is convinced that the presence of this clothing of 

 minute hairs on the wing membranes of the Jugatae is a subordinal 

 character. As compared with the Trichoptera, the Aving clothing of 

 these lowest moths is more specialized by the degradation of the fine 

 hairs, and by a specialization by addition in the highly developed 

 scales characteristic of the entire Lepidoptera. In the Frenatae — 

 butterflies and moths (except Hcpialus and Mirj^djitrri/.r) — the fine hairs 

 are wanting. These studies are in so far confirmatory of Dr. Chapman's 

 views relating to Hcpiahis, regarded as the end development of a long 

 series, since Prof. Kellogg finds the specialization of the scales (as 

 opposed to the fine hairs) of the wing in Hcpialns as confirming the 

 supposition that this genus is the existing tip of a phylogenetic branch 

 whose lower members have disappeared. — A. Radcliffe Grotk, A.M. 



Sounds emitted by Lepidoptera. — The object of the noises made 

 by many butterflies and moths has not been speculated upon to my 

 knowledge. It would seem, hoAvever, possible that they ai'e acces- 

 sory to mimicry, since several of the forms uttering them appear to 

 possess protective colour and markings. Professor Dr. Pabst, of 

 Chemnitz, has made mention of cases of sound-making hitherto pub- 

 lished, and they may be briefly detailed here. Trochilium (qjiforme, 

 which imitates a hornet in form and colour, apes it further by its slow 

 flight and emits a buzzing noise similar to, if feebler, than that common 

 to many bees and wasps. Dr. Pabst believes this peculiar buzzing to be 

 independent of any noise due to the mechanical action of the wings 

 in flight, as it is only observed in the case of T. api/orme. The female 



