NOTES ON LIFE-IIISTORIES, LARViE, ETC. 149 



Forcing Lasiocampa rubi. — I had a small batch of ova last June ; 

 they hatched on the 17th, and I sleeved them on a willow tree in my 

 garden ; they were full-fed by the end of September. I then put 

 them into a cage and kept them supplied with fresh willow, but they 

 only nibbled a little now and then. At the commencement of 

 October they all went under the rubbish at the bottom of the cage. 

 I kept them out of doors until the end of December, when I obtained 

 a large bunch of heather, put it into a jar of water, placed it in the 

 cage, and brought them indoors. I placed them near the oven in my 

 kitchen, when they very soon got lively, crawling about on the 

 heather. By January 3rd, several had spun up, but two did not spin 

 up until February 4th. On February 14th, I had the first emerge, 

 one (? and one $ , another $ on the 20th ; altogether I have had a 

 dozen perfect specimens. — W. E. Butler, Hayling House, Beading. 



Some further notes re T. bistortata and T. crepuscularia (biundularia). 



By W. S. EIDING, B.A., M.D., F.E.S. 



My first T. bistortata — from 2nd brood, Clevedon parentage, 1896 

 — emerged on February 17th, 1897 (one from Clevedon, 1st brood, 

 came out on February 15th), and continued to do so till March 27th. 

 During the winter, they, as well as other pupte alluded to further on, 

 had been kept out of doors under shelter, and were brought into a 

 cold room facing N., about the middle of February. Only a few ? s, 

 which were used for pairing, appeared Avith the S s for the first ten days. 



k. $ T. hiundulana var. lUiawei-cnsiH emerged on February 26tih, 

 but few came out before March 9th, when a S J"- biwuhilaria. 

 appeared, and both continued doing so freely till the end of the 2nd 

 week in April, a few stragglers showing themselves as late as April 

 27th. The first ? var. r/<'^rt/»r;r».s/.s appeared on March 11th, and the 

 first 5 T. biundularia on March 14th. These were the imagines of 

 pupfe bred from ova laid by a $ var. ildaiiierensis from the York 

 district, which hatched May 30-81st, 1896. The T. hiundularia are 

 more spotted with blackish-brown than our southern specimens, and 

 the fact that both were produced from the same batch of ova, shows 

 that inter-breeding is going on between the type and the variety. 

 Probably, however, all these T. biundularia, when not marked var. 

 delamercnsis, are more or less "intermediate" vars. approaching the 

 type, but there is no regular gradation between the two. 



A cage of T. biundularia pupjB, reared from the ova of a $ T. 

 biundularia from the York district, which hatched June 3-4th, 1896, 

 was brought into a warm study towards the end of February, as well 

 as another cage with some of the pupte of var. delamcrcnsis. These 

 began to emerge on March 7th, and continued to do so till the end of 

 the first week in April ; the c? s being a week or ten days in advance 

 of the 2 s for the most part. Both produced the type (or inter- 

 mediates) as well as the variety in nearly equal proportion (with a 

 slight preponderance of T. biundularia from the pupa3 of the 5 T. 

 biundidaria) just as the unforced pupa? did. 



Reciprocal crosses were made, besides pairing similar insects, with 

 the following results : — 



