212 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



mological advice, and we can assure the author, after all, that at least 

 lepidopterists know more about Lepidoptera than appears on the surface, 

 and that in the Entownhuiisits Mojitlili/ McKia^ine, The Kntniiiohujist, 'The 

 KntomologiRt's Record, there are lots of things that he evidently has never 

 seen, or even heard of, that might clear up some of his difficulties. 



:]^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Ovum of Ophiodes lunaris, Schiff. — Rather more than a hemi- 

 sphere, slightly raised at the apex, flat at the base, height 0-8mm., 

 diameter 1-lmm. There are about 25 strong ridges running from the 

 base towards the apex, each of those has a slender rib passing along 

 its summit. Some of the ova had 26 ridges, others only 24. They 

 do not run evenly but in a wavy manner, and about six of them either 

 run into another ridge or cease abruptly as they near the summit. It 

 is interesting to observe how the ridges break down as the micropylar 

 area is approached, like a range of mountains gradually breaking up 

 into isolated hills as the plain is reached. There are also about 30 

 fine lateral ribs encircling the egg at right angles to the ridges. The 

 general surface is roughly wrinkled. The micropylar area, about 

 0-2mm. in diameter, is well-defined. The rosette of ten elongated cells 

 is surrounded by more or less semicircular cells, forming three 

 irregular circles. Beyond these the cells gradually become trans- 

 formed into the ridges. One egg was pale green in colour, but all 

 the other seventeen were deep purple-brown with a broad, irregular 

 ring of pale green about one- third below the apex, and another at the 

 base. [Described end of April, 1906, from ova sent to Mr. Main by 

 Dr. Chapman, from France.] — Alfred Sigh. 



Notes on the early stages of Heodes viRGAUREiE.^ — I reared this 

 species, for the first time, eight years ago. Messrs. Kalwe and Dorries 

 (the latter now eighty-six years of age) told me that they had been 

 unsuccessful, but this had arisen through their want of knowledge 

 that the species hybernated as egg, so that, when the larvse could not 

 be found in early spring, they cleared out the floAver-pots in which the 

 eggs had been placed. Howevei, I kept my eggs longer, and, bringing 

 the growing plant of sorrel into a warm room in January, I patiently 

 waited. The egg of h. viiijaureae remains among the rotting leaves 

 and stalks of sorrel, and hybernates thus. In confinement it is best 

 to cover the sorrel on which the eggs have been laid with dry leaves, 

 and leave them thus during the winter ; desiccation does not then 

 take place ; in January, move the pot into a Avarm room, and in about 

 twenty-four days the first sign of feeding will be observed on the sorrel 

 leaves, showing that the larvte have left the eggs in the meantime. 

 At first they make very small, oval, transparent spots on the leaves, 

 but the larvae are rarely to be observed, for, as soon as they have fed, 

 they hide low down on the stalks. They feed up rapidly, however, 

 and they are not at all difficult to rear. In this manner I reared more 

 than 100 larvte at the first attempt, of which I gave maiij^ to Mr. 

 Dorries and others, and yet bred 40 imagines myself. In 1906, 

 Mr. Dorries received a number of eggs from Mr. Kalwe, and, following 

 the same methods, reared more than 100 imagines. This year, again, 

 Mr. Dorries has larva?, but these have only just hatched, the eggs not 

 being brought under the inflixence of warmth earlier, whilst my larvae 



