180 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



consignments of the pupa? sent tome in September — once nearly seventy, 

 on the other occasion above thirty — and, with the exception of an 

 early emergence or two in the beginning of May, the others emerged 

 most regularly in the first three weeks in June. Now, I would ven- 

 ture to suggest that, in common with the other species of this genus, 

 a few larviB of this species may feed up very rapidly, and emerge 

 towards the end of July and in August, and that the individuals 

 forming this partial second brood lay their eggs, the larvre hatch, and 

 feed up as rapidly as possible until the pupal stage is reached. It may be 

 that winter sometimes overtakes them before they are full fed ; but 

 there is to my mind a considerable difference between larv« going 

 through the winter normally as such (i.e., hybernating as larva)), 

 and larvae doing their level best to reach the pupal stage by con- 

 tinuously feeding, and probably being exterminated if this stage be 

 not reached in nature at a comparatively early period in the winter. 

 I should be pleased to hear the views of those entomologists who have 

 bred large numbers of this species, for probably there is no species 

 more regularly bred, and therefore no species of which detailed 

 information ought to be more readily obtained. — J. W. Tutt, West- 

 combe Hill. November lith, 1895. 



My experience of D. capsophila has been as follows : — I have 



bred the insect every season for a good many years past. I generally 



collect the larvse from the pods of Silene marittma, about the end of 



June or beginning of July, and place them in flower-pots containing 



loose mould, which I cover over with muslin. The larv^e have fed up 



(on the flowers and in the pods) and pupated, the imagines appearing 



in the following season. One year, however, a number of the 



imagines emerged the same season, shortly after pupation {vide., Ent. 



i2ec. , vol. i., p. 262). When collecting the larvffi in July, 1894, I 



remember being much surprised at finding on one day a freshly 



emerged imago, a number of full-fed larvte, and also a number of 



larvfe hardly an inch long. It struck me at the time as being curious, 



because the flowers of S. maritima were quite over, and the pods 



which were then remaining were hard and dry from the effects of the 



sun. The large larvae pupated shortly after they were transferred to 



the pots, but the little ones (which I was obliged to feed on ragged 



robin, as I could not get flowers of S. maritima) stopped feeding 



soon after their removal, and buried themselves in the soil. I turned 



a few up in December to see how they were getting on, and found 



that they had become much lighter in colour. They lived until 



January, and then died, either from the effects of the intense cold 



(they were kept out of doors) or from some other cause unknown to 



me. This is the only instance I can give where (in my experience) the 



larvpe of D. capsophila have attempted to hybernate. The perfect 



insect appears here about the same time as D. camia, viz., the first 



Aveek in June or, if it be an early season, the last week in May. The 



female deposits her eggs about dusk (9.80 to 10 p.m. in June) on 



the flowers of S. maritima, in the same manner as D. caesia, and the 



larvfe hatch in a week or ten days, and at once commence to eat their 



way into the young tender pods. — H. Shoutridge Clarke, F.E.S., 



Douglas, Isle of ]\Ian. November 15th, 1895. 



I have bred D. capsophila now for a long time, and at various 

 times of the summer. I think that, in some seasons, the larvae 



