LIFE -HISTORIES. 



66 



males successively in this way. I observed one female egg-laying. 

 She selected, as it happened, the unusual course of laying underneath 

 a leaf, and was seated nearly inverted ; she also took an unusual time 

 between each egg, six seconds, eight seconds, and seventeen seconds. 

 The eggs were, however, truly laid. Between the layings she raised 

 her body, so that it occupied the normal position in a sort of porch 

 formed by the hindwings andAvith the extremity a good half-inch from 

 the leaf. To lay an egg the abdomen was bent down, pushing apart 

 the wings and curving till it touched the leaf, the butterfly, other- 

 wise, remaining quite at rest. This note is as made at the time, 

 and may help to confirm and make clearer previous notes on the 

 oviposition of A. crataeyi. — T. A. Chapman, M.D., Betula, Reigate. 

 December 6th, 1907. 



The foodplant of Acidalia virgularia (incanaria). — Acidalia 

 rir;/iilaria occurs commonly in this town in two restricted localities, 

 and for the last three or four years I have endeavoured to discover its 

 natural foodplant, but unsuccessfully until this year. It is ivy. I 

 found eight larvae this year in April, together with the larvae of 

 Zanclofjnatha tarsipennalis, which were full-fed. The A. viryiilaria 

 larvfe were rather more than three-parts grown, and fed exceedingly 

 slowly until the middle of June, and all produced imagines. I tried 

 them with withered leaves of dock and later with knotgrass, but they 

 would not eat anything but ivy. They were rather difficult to find as 

 searching with a lamp at night was useless. I think they must feed 

 for a very short time in the early morning, as I have watched them at 

 nearl}' every hour from 8 a.m. to midnight, and never saw one move 

 much less eat. — Richard Freer, M.D., Rugeley, Staffs. December \lth, 

 1907. [This species is very abundant in June, and, in fine summers, 

 occurs sparingly also in late August and early September, in Westcombe 

 Park on a fence overhung with ivy, which we have long since assumed 

 to be its foodplant though we have never tested it. — Ed.] 



Notes on the Life-history of Cyclopides pal.emon. — An egg 

 deposited on the underside of a leaf of Bracliypodium sylvaticiim, on 

 June 9th 1907, at 3.25 p.m., by a female received from Lincoln, I 

 kept apart for observation, and was fortunately in the act of watching 

 it on the morning of the 28th when, at 10.8 a.m., a jet-black head 

 appeared at the edge of the micropyle and the larva immediately, with 

 semicircular movements of the head, commenced to eat away the egg- 

 shell, continuing until nothing remained but its base. It now 

 appeared, under a low-power lens, as pure white with a comparatively 

 large and shining black head. So soon as it had consumed the egg- 

 shell, it descended the leaf along its edge and crawled on to a smaller 

 and only partly developed blade. This it ascended to the height of 

 some two inches, and, after a few moments' hesitation, retraced its steps 

 and reached the original and older leaf. Throughout this time, the 

 head was turned rapidly from side to side as if in the act of spinning, 

 although no silk issued. Travelling to the top of this leaf, and 

 descending for a couple of inches along the midrib on the upperside, 

 it stopped. This spot evidently suited it, for, remaining motionless 

 some three seconds and reversing its position, i.e., taking up an 

 attitude with head to the tip of the blade, it commenced spinning by 

 attaching one end of the thread to the very outside on one side, and 

 carrying the strand across to the opposite side but not quite to the edge. 



