224 THE entomot.o(jist's record. 



cocoons which one must either separate and pin up separately or 

 leave alone with the certainty of a large number of cripples and 

 many failures to emerge. In its mode of pupation, the larva 

 of P. fnlitjinosa ditt'ers widely from those of Sjiilosotna nrticae, S. 

 uiendica, S. bibricipeda, and S. vicnthastri, all of which spin on the 

 ground for preference in confinement, although a few cocoons are 

 generally spun up among the leaves. With P. fnlii/inona, however, few, 

 if any (I did not discover any), spun up on the ground, all going up, 

 and many as high as possible, before spinning. A considerable pro- 

 portion of the larvje, perhaps nearly one-third, did not spin with the 

 others although they occupied similar situations, and rested as if about 

 to moult, in fact they attempted hybernation at the end of June and 

 beginning of July. From time to time, throughout the remainder of 

 summer, persuaded by those too brief intervals of warmth that, what 

 I presume they mistook for, the southern European winter was at an 

 end, a few individuals would spin up, pupate and emerge in due course. 

 I had a few specimens out in September, two or three in October, and 

 one misguided individual at the beginning of November. By far the 

 greater number of the hybernators, however, gradually pined away and 

 died, either from want of moisture (I kept them indoors with the 

 exception of a few, which I put into a cage in a cool entry facing east, 

 and which fared no better than the others) or because the situation 

 was not right, or the winter was too long, or from other unexplained 

 causes ; at any rate they died and concern this history no further. 



The second-brood larvte, either from disparity of dates of laying 

 and hatching or as I think partly from the sequence of hot and cold 

 periods delaying the moults of some and urging forward those of others, 

 showed a great disparity as regards speed of growth, and I had to pen 

 them out on growing plants while I was away during the latter part 

 of August and the first week of September ; one week of this period was 

 I am told, very hot, the other part of the time was wet and windy, if 

 not cold. By October 1st, the greater proportion of these had pupated 

 but there were many backward larvfp in various stages of growth, some 

 still quite small; a few, apparently adult but rather small, larvfe were 

 resting as though for hybernation, but very few in proportion to the 

 number of first brood larvM' that attempted it. As events proved, 

 however, nearly all these subsequently spun up during the warm fine 

 weather we had in October, and now (middle of November) I do not 

 think that there are more than half-a-dozen hybernating. The third 

 brood larvte are considerably smaller than the first brood, but this is 

 probably quite as much due to unfavorable conditions of food and 

 temperature as to in-breeding. 



The emergence of the imagines was rather erratic, sometimes the 

 favoured period was the forenoon, but at others the evening about 

 5 p.m. -8 p.m. The temperature was, I think, chiefly responsible for 

 this difference, as, on hot days, most of the emergences would take 

 place in the forenoon and in cooler weather towards evening. The 

 time of flight and pairing was about dusk, say 8 p.m. -9.30 p.m. The 

 tempei-ature being here also the governing factor, as the moths would 

 remain dormant or very sluggish in cold weather, and pairing was 

 rare and very difficult to bring about, except on warm windy nights or 

 when on a warm night the cage was placed in. the draught from a 

 window. In copulation the ? often supports the J , although this is 



