188f..] 21 



develop lavYos which hibernate as such ; but witli regard to IlegcBra, I found in 

 November, 1879, at Teignmouth, a full-fed larva which suspended itself, and became 

 a pupa at once. It was unfortunately ichneumoncd ; but an egg laid in August 

 produced a larva which, in a warm room, fed up, became a pupa, and emerged 

 November 15th. This proves nothing, as artificial heat was employed, but the full- 

 grown caterpillar was at large. The earliest appearance of Megara noted by me is 

 May 2nd. 



Of S. Hyperanihus I have the following notes : " Eggs laid freely by a female 

 on July Ifith, larvae lived through the winter, became full fed in the following June, 

 did not suspend themselves, but changed into pupse on the surface of the earth and 

 emerged in July." The notes and figures of S. Semele are most interesting, both 

 larva and pupa are unknown to me, but they bring a piece of entomological gossip 

 of by-gone days back to my mind. In my student years the finding of a larva of S. 

 Briseis near Stoke Newington was only a few years old, and had not passed out of 

 memory, and Mr. Edward Doubleday (to whose den under the British Museum I 

 was a frequent visitor, and wliose kindly help on many entomological points I still 

 gratefully remember), once said to me, " I asked the gentleman who found it if it 

 hung itself up by the tail, and when he answered, no, it buried, I then felt sure that 

 there was no mistake." 



The history of Apatura Iris, and of the whole genus Argynnis amongst the 

 NymphalidcB, is wonderful in its minuteness of detail, and were I not sure that 

 every Lepidopterist would get the book, I should quote the history of the full-grown 

 Argynnis Euphrosyne larva as specially interesting. This may be said, however, 

 from my experience of Argynnis Aglaia, that the larva does not always conceal 

 itself before pupating, as I have found both the suspended larva and pupa at Lyn- 

 mouth on the bare limestone rock. Argynnis Lathonia and 31elitcea Cinxia are 

 without any description, though the adult larva of the latter is well figured. With 

 regard to M. Athalia, Melampyrum pratense and M. sylvaticum are the only food- 

 plants given : unless my memory fails me, Mr. Reading of Plymouth found the larva 

 feeding on the common wood sage, Teucritcm scorodonia. I once found a brood of 

 M. didyma larvae in the Saas Valley, feeding on Teucrium montaniim, and succeeded 

 in rearing some of them. It will be borne in mind that 3Ielampyrum is scrophula- 

 riaceous, while Teucrium is labiate. 



The life of our only European Erycina, Nemeohiits Lucina, is well worked out,* 

 and the Lyccenida are admirable. Neither history nor figure of Lyccena Acis is 

 given, and there is no figure of Lycana Arion, but its early history, which is all 

 that is known, is worked out as far as the time of hibernation. There are figures 

 but no written history of Thecla pruni and Th. w-album. With regard to Lycana 



* In Mr. Edwards' work on " The Butterflies of North America " it is interesting to note how 

 nearly in its larva and mode of p\ipation, as well as In the imago state, the genus Lemonias ap- 

 proaches our Nenieobius : and it may be worth a pas.siiig remark, how often insects of the same 

 genus resemble each other, as indeed is natural, in the antecedent stages. Thus not only is the 

 larva of the closely allied Paptlio Zoliconn almost identical with that of P. Mac/iann, but the 

 larva of so different a species as P. brericauda is very similar, not only in the adult stage, but 

 even in the white saddle-like marking of the young larvas, and this seems also to be the case with 

 P. Turnus and its allies, Daitnits and Rutilus, though the adult larva is much less striped. P. 

 Ajax seems rather to resemble Podalirius ; so the larva of the widely different Apatura celtis is 

 very like that of A. Iris ; and even the larva; of the very distinct Disippiis group of Limenitis are 

 exactly similar in f(jrm, though not in colour, to those of L. Sibi/lla. Many other examples might 

 be quoted, but the North American Grapltv and our own Acronyctie prove that the rule is not 

 universal. 



