406 LÉPIDOPTÉROLOGIE COMPARÉE 



what restless, and may walk over each other, it is belter to isolate 

 them in a chip box when " getting " their wings. Both sexes 

 show to a slight extent, an excess of liquid in the wings and 

 body, but it rarely interfères with the fur when the insect is pinned. 

 The maies fly readily and vigorously and pair at once with females 

 of any species or hybrid and, if allowed, will do so more than 

 once. The females too, are fully sexed and pair and oviposit 

 freely, never showing the habits of harrisoni O in commencing to 

 call again after laying a few ova. Needless to say, the females 

 cannot fly. When alarmed, both sexes if placed m a sort of semi 

 captivity on a pièce of a tree bole, seem inclined to press them- 

 selves doser to the bark but, if greater violence is used, they fall 

 and sprawl a.wkwardly as if feigning death. They soon proceed 

 to crawl up the twig or stem again. 



Fertility of imagines. 



Both sexes may be fertile to a greater or less extent when English 

 hirtaria pro vides the maie parent, but in ail the experiments made 

 when continental examples were used, failure resulted. Even a 

 Crossing with zonaria Q in the case of semi-English pilzïi cf 

 yielded fertile ova. Possibly this différence is due to the more 

 specialised character of the English race of hirtaria. 



Description of ova. 



The ova in gênerai appearance, are like those of both hirtaria 

 and pomonaria but are larger and glossier. The shell too, is 

 thinner so that the ova, if not fertile, collapse at once. 



(B) Poecilopsis pomonaria cf x Lycia hirtaria Q = hybrid hnnii. 

 Poecilopsis hybr. hunii (Oberthùr). 



This cross is probably the easiest of ail to obtain, and also 

 yields the greatest percentage of fertile ova. It would be a very 

 easy thing for one to rear loo % of imagines from the ova laid. 



