November, 1880.1 121 



DREPANA SICULA BRED FROM THE EGG. 

 BY WILLIAM H. GRLGGK 



It is with much satisfaction I am at last able to record the above 

 circumstance, through my having captured a worn ? moth on 4th of 

 July, 1879, and her subsequent laying of thirty-nine eggs, attached to 

 the edge of a leaf of Tilia parvifolia ; and from these eggs twenty- 

 five larvae were brought successfully through their first moult by 3rd 

 of August, when five of them were forwarded to Mr. Buckler, who 

 reared three to full growth. 



Hatched on the 17th and 18th of July, the little larvae were at 

 first very restless, unceasingly roaming to and fro over the lime leaves 

 in the nearly air-tight jam pot I confined them in, where, one by one, 

 many succumbed, as if from starvation, and it was not until the third 

 day that I noticed any of the leaves had been attacked, when I was 

 pleased to find some of the larvae had commenced eating the upper 

 surface close to the edge, and more particularly at the tip of the leaf. 



Once got to settle down to their food quietly like rational beings, 

 there was very little more prospecting to be observed, and the 

 remaining larvae fed up w T ell : the first one spinning together a leaf for 

 pupation on the 27th of August, and the last on 12th of September. 



The pupae were kept out of doors through the winter in an exposed 

 situation, open to the north, and the first moth (a male) put in an 

 appearance on 23rd of May, 1880,* and the next day three more, others 

 followed, and the last on the 1st of June, making altogether sixteen 

 specimens bred. In two instances the moths had not been able to 

 escape from the cocoons, and the others w T ere dried up. 



Having now got both sexes out together, the next thing was to 

 try if some of them would pair ; the first attempt proved futile, but 

 on placing a male and two females together, the desired end was 

 attained at 10.30 p.m., and this again with three other females ; one 

 pair remaining in cop. forty-eight hours, an instance the more remark- 

 able as the female laid only ten eggs, and they proved unfertile ; the 

 other pairs had separated between 8 and 9 next morning. 



These females seemed loth to lay, and preferred to rest on the 

 sides of the glass cylinder, rather than on the spray of lime it enclosed, 

 and for three days scarcely moved, when, on an average, sixty eggs 

 each were deposited on the edge of one or two leaves during the dusk 

 of the evening without any kind of excitement ; one moth piled hers 

 up, as if a more equal distribution of the ova were needless fatigue. 



* My first and earliest capture of specimens of sicula at large, consisted of a much worn pair 

 >n the 6th of June, 1874. 



