202 
r February' 
"THE LEriDOPTERA OF IRELAND." 
BY EDWIN" BIRCHALL. 
First Supplementary List. 
Apamea eibkosa— Killarney. 
Ennomos tiliabta — Kildare. 
Very abundant at light. — Hon. Emily Lawless. 
Enntchia ANGUiisrALis— Gralway. 
Ephippiphoba tetsagonana — Howth. 
Mr. Barrett. 
Erratum. 
For Theea simtjlata read Theea tartata. 
NOTES ON COLLECTING, MANAGEMENT, &c., (LEPIDOPTEBA). 
BY H. Q. KNAGGS, M.D., F.L.S. 
THE CATERPILLAR STATE. 
{Continued from Vol. ii. page 271.) 
The furore to possess varieties wliich rages among British Macro-Lepidopterists, 
together with a growing interest by students of all branches of Natural History in 
that vexed subject — the variation of species — has opened up a vast field for enquiry 
as to the influences which produce these interesting freaks of nature. 
" Variety -breeding," as it has been not inaptly termed, though yet in its in- 
fancy, would appear to offer the most practical means of arriving at something 
like a definite solution of the mystery, and as this art comes within the province of 
the larva rearer, I purpose glancing at those influences which are supposed to act 
on the preliminary stages of insect life to produce variation in the perfect state : 
to be brief then. — 
First. — Influences acting ah initio. These may be accidental or hereditary — 
with the former we have little to do, but they may account for the formation of 
certain monstrosities in which organs are multiplied, suppressed, or modified 
through error in the primary impulse. Hereditary influences, on the other hand, 
will account for a large proportion of varieties, and may without doubt be turned 
to account as well by the variety breeder of insects as the Herefordshire farmer or 
the pigeon fancier, by the careful selection of parout stock with a view to pecu- 
liarities, whether structural or ornamental, being reproduced in the progeny. Of 
this we have {e.g.) instances in the rearing of negro varieties from parents more or 
less tainted with melanism ; and of imperfections perpetuated, as in the frequent 
recurrence of individuals wanting a hind-wing, which may be noticed even at large 
in Macaria notata. 
That these are the results of hereditary influences would seem to be demons- 
