1886. ) 235 



Possible acclimatization of Papilio Erecthens, Don., in Euroioe. — This fine 

 species could, probably, be easily acclimatized in the South of Europe. When we 

 left Sydney on March 30th, 1885, I had a number of pupfe which emerged at differ- 

 ent times on the way home, after undergoing great changes of temperature. From 

 Sydney we proceeded through Torres Straits to Singapore, where we arrived on May 

 8th, and remained for about a month. Larvae and pupae taken in March and April 

 would, in their natural course, produce butterflies in August or September, The 

 temperature at Sydney at the end of March averaged 70° in the shade, and it would 

 continue to get cooler up to the middle of June, which is about the coldest time of 

 the year. At Singapore, in May, the thermometer ranged from 80° to 88°. From 

 Singapore we went for a few days to Batavia, and from thence across the Indian 

 ocean to Aden. The temperature during the passage was, comparatively speaking, 

 cooler, but directly we passed through the straits of Bab-el-mandeb and entered the 

 Red Sea the heat became intense, 89° to 94° in the shade, and not much cooler at 

 night. At Malta, where we arrived on August 2nd and remained until the 7th, the 

 heat was very great, indeed, it was said that they had not experienced such weather 

 for nearly thirty years. On board ship the temperature was only recorded 79° to 

 93°, but I feel convinced that it must have been higher, for on shore it rose to 120° 

 in the shade, and cases of sunstroke occurred daily, even among the Maltese. Not- 

 withstanding the extreme heat the pupae of Erectheus were subject to, the perfect 

 insects did not appear much earlier than they would have done had they remained 

 in their native country. The first emerged at sea between Java and Aden on June 

 19th, and the last at sea between Malta and Gribraltar on August 14th. Had we 

 come direct home from Sydney, these butterflies would not have been born until after 

 our arrival in England. There would be no difiiculty in sending a supply of pupae 

 by mail steamer to Brindisi, where they would doubtless soon acclimatize themselves, 

 as the larvae feed almost exclusively upon various varieties of orange and lemon. — 

 GrEEVASE F. Mathew, H.M.S. " Penelope," Harwich : February 12th, 1886. 



GrapJiolitha PenMeriana bred from Nut and Alder Catkins. — The gi'een larva 

 which last season I found abundantly in catkins of nut and alder, but was unable to rear 

 (see Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxi, p. 203), has this season proved to be the above species. 

 On the 2nd of November, 1884, I was in the neighbourhood of the nut plantation 

 where I had obtained the larva the previous spring, and was surprised to find that 

 the catkins of the nut were fullv grown, and only required the warm sun of early 

 spring to expand the anthers. The late and very fine autumn had had a similar 

 effect also upon the catkinb of the birch and alder, which, however, were not so 

 forward as those of the nut. It was about the middle of March when I had 

 previously found the larva, then quite small, which I now know to be PenMeriana; 

 three months and a half later, but as I did not expect to be in the locality again for 

 some time, and as the catkins were as forward as I had previously found them in 

 March, I gathered a quantity, selecting those which had an abnormal bulge near 

 the centre. There were a considerable number thus distorted, but when I got them 

 home and examined them I was not able to detect anything which had caused the 

 swelling, nor indeed could I find larvae of any kind in the catkins. I put the 

 catkins, much broken up by examination, into a bottle, and tied a piece of rag 

 over the mouth. Towards the end of February there was a plentiful supply of larvae 



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