SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSEEVATIONS. 181 



hybernate. This year I took the insect in fine condition, late in 

 Aug-ust. The larvfe from these could not feed up, as the plants of 

 S. maritima were then getting scarce, and would be quite over before 

 the larvae could be full-fed. I have never, however, kept one of these 

 late broods. — H. Murray, Lowbank Villa, Carnforth. November 15th, 

 1895. 



Although I have bred a few specimens of D. eapsophila nearly 

 every year, I have never taken any special pains in the breeding of 

 this species, because I could invariably take plenty with the net quite 

 equal in condition to bred specimens. However, they appear to hybernate 

 both in the pupal and larval state, depending mainly upon how the late 

 larvfe are forced, etc. In its natural state there appears to be a suc- 

 cession of broods, extending from May to August, and in confinement 

 we may obtain two broods by slight forcing. In the latter event I am 

 of opinion that the second brood are lighter in colour, and have a 

 nearer resemblance to 1). caipoiihat/a. I have observed at various times 

 that odd specimens, when first caught, have a very dark appearance, 

 and are nearly unicolorous ; but this entirely disappears in a very 

 short time, and the specimens become quite typical. — Geo. A. Booth, 

 F.E.S., Preston. November 21th, 1895. 



NoTfi:S ON BREEDING AmPHFDASYS DEtULARIA AND ITS VAR. DOUBLE- 



DAYARiA. — After reading Mr. Douglas C. Bate's interesting paper on 

 A»iphidasi/.s hetidaria (ante, p. 27, et seq.), I am tempted to pen a few 

 notes on my own experience in breeding the species, and its variety 

 doubledayaria, last summer. Both parents, and two of the three 

 grandparents whose colour is known (the fourth, a wild male, never 

 came under observation), of the eggs that I received from a friend, 

 were black, but of the moths that resulted, and which emerged 

 between June 2nd and 27th, about two-thirds were doubledayaria, and 

 the rest typical. In Mr. Bate's brood the males, as a rule, came out 

 first and the females later, but, curiously enough, with mine the 

 reverse was the case, for the first fourteen moths that emerged were 

 all females, and out of the next six only two were males ; after that, 

 both sexes came out together for a time, whilst of the rearguard of the 

 brood the males formed rather the majority. Emergence took place, 

 as a rule, in the late evening or at night, chiefly from about 7 to 11 p.m., 

 and, owing to this, it frequently happened that the moths were not in a 

 fit condition to put into the killing-box before one retired to bed, but 

 as it was invariably the case that those, whether males or females, 

 that were left in the cages all night were so rubbed by the morning 

 as to be worthless, I only set out about 70. Var. doiddedaijaria, like 

 several other black moths, gets shabby-looking very easily ; its scales 

 seem to be remarkably loose, so that great care is necessary in setting 

 it, and, owing to its colour, the loss of any of them at once catches 

 the eye and spoils the appearance of the wing. The larvte, which 

 showed a great range of colour between green and smoky brown, were 

 fed throughout on alder ; some pupated in the soil, whilst others did 

 not take the trouble to do so, but turned to pupa? on the surface. 

 Pairings were easily obtained, and plenty of eggs, which are very 

 small for so large a moth, were laid ; for a single female will produce 

 them by the hundred, pushing her ovipositor through the meshes of the 

 tarlatan, and laying her eggs on the opposite side of it from that on 

 which she is resting. Mr. Bate's careful observations leave nothing 



