feNTOMOLOGT AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 205 



affected by temperature in the early pupal stages. In the summer- 

 pupti3 of such a species as Sdenia tetralnnaria, the combinations of 

 winter pattern with summer colouring, and summer pattern with 

 winter colouring, were shown, by examples which were exhibited, to 

 be capable of production in moths proceeding from the same parents. 

 Lord Walsingham had an interesting exhibition of Examples of 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AMONG THE MiCRO-LePIDOPTERA, illustrated 



by specimens and coloured maps, and the strange distribution of some 

 small species, in which migration to their various habitats under 

 present geographical conditions appears impossible, suggests strongly 

 the notions (1) whether the insects are not to be traced back to a time 

 when America, Africa and Australia were united, and (2) whether 

 the insects have remained practically unchanged since they first 

 occupied a continuous tropical habitat. The delicate and short-lived 

 insects exhibited, being almost exclusi^■ely phytophagous, and fre- 

 quently attached not only to the same genus, but to the same species 

 of food-plant, appear to be not only altogether unadapted for migra- 

 tion, but also for artificial distribution, and it becomes exceedingly 

 difficult to explain the distribution of the species exhibited, when it 

 is further taken into account that the normal distribution of these 

 insects is, with one exception, that of Plutella cruciferarum (which, 

 by-the-by, Mr. Durrant says is not the correct name for this species), 

 extremely local. 



j^CIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Hybernation of Vanessa io. — For the first time, I found, during 

 the past winter, Vanesf:a io hybernating. Unlike those mentioned by 

 Newman, the one I found was alone, and placed where its colour was 

 not protective — on the underside of a flat stone. One day, late in 

 February, it had gone, possibly my three or four visits had disturbed 

 it, as I had to raise the stone on edge to see it. Anyhow, I saw no 

 V. io on the wing this year until April. I usually see them in March, 

 and last year saw one on February 9th. — J. J. Wolfe, Skibbereen, 

 CO. Cork. 



The genital organs of Tepheosia bistortata (crepuscularia) 

 AND T. crepuscularia (biundularia). — I have just come across the 

 following note by Mr. Nicholas Cooke : — " There is a great difference 

 between Tephrosia cnqninndaria and T. hiundulaiia in the structure of 

 the anal appendages" [Kntom. x., p. 95). — J. W. Tutt. 



:ig^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARYiE, &c. 



Goncptcrijx clcajiatra. — Egg (of presumably this species) found on 

 April 23rd, at Digne, on Bhaninns. Of a pale greenish-colour, resem- 

 bling somewhat closely the colour of the undersurface of the leaf on 

 which it is laid, and from which it stands out almost at right angles. 

 On April 26th, the colour of the egg had become bright orange, except 

 the apex, which was yellower. The egg is tall, spindle-shaped, the 

 base considerably broader than the apex, gradually becoming wider 

 from the base upwards to about the centre, and then gradually con- 

 tracting to the apex, which is almost pointed. There are a dozen 

 raised longitudinal ribs running from base to apex, and also very faint 



