B03IBTX QUERCCrS AND BOMBYX CALLUNiE. 299 



June 25th, 1890, he took some larvfe of Bomhyx callunae, about three 

 parts grown, and an imago of the same species. My own specimens 

 have always emerged in late June. Mr. Finlay {Ent. Bee, iii., p. 7), 

 says the eggs are laid at the end of June or beginning of July. 



(2). Captain Thompson says : — " The larva of B. quercus is full-fed 

 at the end of May, pupates in June, and emerges in July, whereas 

 B. callunae is full-fed at the end of August, spins its cocoon in 

 September, hybernates the second winter as a pupa, and emerges in the 

 following May." Now, Mr. W. Mackmurdo writes [Ent. Bee, ii., p. 186), 

 that he found a full-fed larva of B. quercmon August 26th, 1891, in the 

 Warren, Folkestone, which spun up in due course, and remarked on the 

 lateness of the find. Mr. Barker reported [Proc. Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc, 

 1891, p. 141) that he had taken larvfe at Folkestone the same autumn 

 (1891), that these had pupated later in the autumn, and added that in the 

 same year "many larvae of B. quercfts were reported as having been taken 

 full-fed in the Warren, at Folkestone, during August and September." 

 Mr. Bond records (Ent. Mo. JMa;/., p. 86) that from pupse received from 

 Stafit's., which had gone over the winter as pupte, one of six specimens 

 which had emerged in June was "certainly the form called quercus." 

 Mr. Daws, of Mansfield, Notts., writes [Ent. Bee, i., p. 109) : — "I have 

 had a B. quercus lie over two seasons, and then produce typical </?^fr«('s, 

 not var. callunae, in the early spring." This bears very strongly on 

 Captain Thompson's contention {Ent. Bee, viii., p. 160). Mr. 

 Tunaley records {Ent. Bee, viii., p. 167), that he found 29 cocoons 

 of B. querciis at the bottom of a hawthorn hedge, at Derby, on 

 February 14th, 1865. Mr. Beadle states {Ent. Bee, vi., p. 278) 

 that on Skiddaw the larva of B. callunae is full-fed in June. Mr. 

 Pitman, too, brings the appearance of B. quercus and B. callunae 

 within a fortnight of each other. He states {Ent. Bee, vi., p. 34) 

 that the larvfe of B. callunae hatched a good fortnight before those of 

 B. quercus. He does not, hewever, tell us whether callunae laid first, 

 or whether he obtained ova at about the same time. Mr. Merrifield 

 {Trans. Ent. Sne Land., 1892, p. 40) writes :— " I believe temperature 

 applied early in the larval stage has efiected a complete conversion as 

 regard the habits of these insects." The following is rather a strange 

 note. The time that the larvre were captured would suggest 

 B. callunae, the time of emergence B. quercus, but the note by Mr. 

 Daws, from the same locality (Mansfield),suggeststhatthe species may 

 really be q^u'rei'ts. The note relates to the time of appearance, and 

 Mr. Richard Tyrer, of Mansfield, writes, on Sept. 21st, 1867 :- " A 

 female {Lctslocauipa quercus) has just made its appearance in a friend's 

 breeding-cage. The larva was taken, with two others, last September, 

 and they spun up about the middle of the month. Is it not an 

 uncommon occurrence for the insect to remain in the pupa state a full 

 year, and to emerge at this season ? The two other pupse are 

 awaiting their change, when will they appear ? " The appearance of 

 either B. quercus or B. callunae in September, after being in the pupal 

 stage twelve months, is sufficiently remarkable. 



(3). As to the fact of B. quercus going through its metamorphoses 

 in a year, the experience of Mr. Daws, Mr. Tunaley, and Mr. 

 Barker, just recorded, all oppose it. The two former gentlemen talk 

 of typical B. quercus going over the winter as pupte. As to B. callunae 

 taking less than two years, Mr, Finlay writes {Ent. Bee, iii., p. 7); — ■ 



