240 THE entomologist's record. 



August 20lh, 1904.— Einnephele jurtina paired, when disturbed ? carried s 



July '29th, 1905. — 'iE.jurtma observed carryings 



July 29th, 1905. — i A(jriades conjdon ,, ,, ? 



August 10th, 1907. — i A. corydon ,, ,, ? , 



August 2nd, 1908. — 2E.jurtina ,, >, c? 



August 28th, 1908. — ^ Coenonympha pamphilus ,, ,, <? 



C. W. COLTHRUP. 



:]aOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARV^, &c. 



Aberration of larva of Papilio machaon. — Whilst taking a walk to- 

 day, I came across a small boy with two fuUgrown F. machaon larva; in 

 his hot hand, and these he made over to me on being suitably bribed. 

 They are both rather interesting cases of melanism. In one the 

 green is replaced by black, with the exception of the underside, which 

 is about half black, and of two very line green lines on either side of 

 the rows of six orange-red spots on the thoracic and four last abdomi- 

 nal segments ; on the central segments these fine green lines do not 

 extend much further than the subspiracular spots. The second has 

 several of the orange spots bordered with white, and the line green 

 lines are extremely pale in colour. I have never seen anything like 

 this among the swarms of P. machaon larvae that I have come across 

 in French Switzerland, and so send you this description of them in 

 case of it being of use. — P. A. H. Muschamp, F.E.S., Stiifa. Septem- 

 ber, 20th, 1908. 



The egglaying of Acidalia immutata.^ — A $ Acidalia immutata, 

 caught on a bog above StJifa, July 30th, 1908, laid a large number of 

 pale yellowish eggs in the box in which she was confined. They were 

 elongated, and ribbed longitudinally (apparently about ten ribs, as far 

 as can be told by means of a pocket lens), changing rapidly to bright 

 yellow and then to orange-red. The object of this note, however, is 

 to record that, whilst a few of the eggs were laid with the long axis 

 parallel to the plane of deposition, i.e., as typical fiat eggs, the others 

 were laid either as upright eggs (with the micropyle as the apex), or at 

 some angle that falls somewhat short of the perpendicular. I have 

 noted this peculiarity in other Acidaliids, but not, I think, in this 

 species. — J. W. Tutt. 



Unusual foodplants of wild larvae. — It is often interesting to 

 note how, in captivity, larva^ will take to foodplants which • are 

 apparently not natural to them, but it is not so often that we find 

 the same thing occurring with wild larvse, so perhaps the following 

 may be of interest. About a month ago — the middle of August — I 

 happened to go one night into my greenhouse, where I had placed 

 some cages containing pupae ready for emergence, and my eye fell on 

 a plant of begonia, from which hung suspended a number of small 

 larvae. At that time they were not large enough for me to be certain as 

 to the species, but I carefully sleeved the plant, and they are now full- 

 fed and prove to be either Tephrosia hiatortata or T. crepuscularia, 

 probably the former. My second experience w^as last spring. Some 

 year ago I had captured here a specimen of MelUnia oceUaris, the 

 food-plant of which is poplar, and particularly, it is believed, the 

 catkins. My only poplars here are a row of black poplars which line 

 the carriage drive to this house, and in April I noticed these catkins 

 falling, and determined to try whether by sweeping them up I could 

 secure larvae of M. ocellaris. From about a bushel of catkins, sticks, 



