NOTES ON APIONS AND THEIR LARV^. 18l 



.simile attacks the birch, although the imago is generally found upon 

 it), and this in no ordinary fashion, for it is apparently parasitic in the 

 galls of a Nt')iiatiis, according to Perris, or those of a Dipteron, 

 according to Kaltenbach, on the underside of the leaves of Salix 

 vitdlina (the white willow). 



Most of the species of the genus are not uncommon (the Leijii- 

 /»ino.s«t'-feeders often only too abundant), although those that aftect the 

 Labiatar are local, and for the most part restricted to chalky districts, 

 and there are a few great rarities : A. laerif/atuw, Kirby, is probably 

 now extinct as a British species ; it originally occurred at Birch Wood, 

 Kent, where its larva fed upon the terminal bud of Filcuio (jallica, but 

 its locality is now destroyed. A. .wmivittatum was once taken in 

 numbers at Margate, many years ago, on Mercurialu annua, and has 

 not been seen since. Of A. opeticum, two specimens only have 

 occurred in Britain — at Hastings; it feeds upon Orobits and Lotus, on 

 the coast ; in which situation, but upon Sedum album and S. acre (the 

 biting stone-crop), A. setli occasionally occurs. A. rerdo is generally 

 considered the only essentially northern species, yet I hear from 

 Mr. Elliman that he took it in goodly numbers at Chesham, Bucks., 

 last spring. A. astrat/ali, still a very rare species, was, I believe, 

 originally discovered as British by Kirby, in his parish of Barham, 

 Suffolk, but I never had the good fortune to turn it up hereabouts. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



On the hybernating stage of Pakarge egeria. — Mr. Tutt, in 

 his most interesting article on " The hybernating stages of British 

 Butterflies" {Knt. Itee., vol. viii., p. 101), in reviewing the 

 evidence with regard to /'. ei/eria, says, " there is not the re- 

 motest doubt that if the pupiB Avere found in the autumn, they would 

 have emerged the same autumn, and if in spring, that they had spent 

 the winter as larvae ;" but I think there is a doubt, as the following 

 will show. On the 26th July, 1892, I captured a good number of the 

 butterflies in the New Forest (the majority at sugared tree-trunks, by 

 the way), and on the following day obtained ova, which hatched on 

 the 7th August. One larva at once outstripped its relatives, feeding 

 so rapidly, that by the 1st September it was ready to pupate, and 

 emerged — a fine female — on the 19th. The remaining larvfi; fed more 

 steadily, and pupated from the 20th to 27th September, about 80 in 

 all. I was under the impression that if they did not emerge that 

 autumn they would perish, and therefore kept them in a warm room, 

 the result being that one butterfly put in an appearance on the 16th 

 November, followed by others on the 19th and 22nd, and 2nd, 5th, 

 8th, 15th, 20th, 28rd, 29th, and 81st December. Now, going back to 

 the 20th November, on that date I thought I would, by way of experi- 

 ment, place eight pupte out of doors, and this I did. They remained 

 fully exposed to the intense cold of the winter, which was a severe 

 one, and retained their beautiful green colour until the 28th March 

 following, when they commenced to tinge with a faint brown. The 

 butterflies from these emerged 1st April (2), Brd (1), 4th (1), 5th (1), 

 6th (U), and 9th (1), thus it will be seen that the whole 8 came to 

 maturity, hariwi paused the ivinteras pupae. Of course this does not prove 

 that they naturally pass the winter in this stage, but it undoubtedly 



