1867.1 
13 
Note on the pairing of Vaness(B.—L think I have heard an opinion expressed 
that the VanesstB copulate boforo hybernation. This, however, I have always 
doubted, havin<? often seen the males of V. urticoi following the females in spring 
in amorous fashion. The other day I noticed a pair of V. cardui in great excite- 
ment settling on the ground, the male walking round the female with tremulous 
wings ; they then flew up, and after circling round with great rapidity for a con- 
siderable time, settled on one of the lower branches of an oak tree, where they at 
once paired. So quietly did they settle down, that although I hit the branch 
close by them with sods, they would not move. — In. 
Note on the larva of Limenitis 8ibyUa.—l have been to-day to Woolmer Forest, 
to the place in which Limenitis SihrjUa occurs, and have, by hard searching, con- 
trived to find above a dozen larvoD of that species ; they appear to prefer those 
honeysuckles which ch'mb over bushes and up the trunks of oak trees, and are 
generally to be found on the smaller stems or shoots in the more sheltered parts of 
the bush. One or two of the larger specimens were upon the leaves feeding, but 
most of them had a carpet of silk laid down on the stem at the base of a shoot upon 
which to rest. They are as yet small, the largest being but little over an inch 
long— pretty creatures, delicate light green, with curiously tufted or branched 
pink spines, and purple spiracular line ; but Mr. Buckler, to whom I am sending 
specimens, will, doubtless, on a future occasion, describe them for you with his 
usual accuracy. — Id. 
Discovery of the larva of Scsia chrysidiformis.— 'Dnring my stay at Folke- 
stone last June and July I resolved to find, if possible, the larva of this beautiful 
clearwing, and, after watching several females as they hovered about, and losing 
them, was fortunate enough to observe one depositing her eggs on the upper side 
of the leaf of the common sorrel ; and I also detected eggs upon the common dock. 
I now set to work splitting the dead stem.s and digging up the roots, and was soon 
rewarded by finding several pupa? and full-fed larvJB, two of which I at once 
forwarded to Mr. Buckler to figure. The specimens bred from the dock were 
much larger and brighter than those bred from the sorrel. The insect appears to 
live in the larval state over two years, as I have a larva still feeding which seemed 
to be full-grown when I took it last July. Among others I bred a large male 
variety wanting the yellow belts. 
The perfect insect emerges between nine and eleven a.m., and copulation 
takes place between ten and twelve.— E. G. Meek, 1a, Paradise Row, Old Ford, 
E.— aiay llth, 1867. 
*:^* The discovery of the larva of S. chrysidiformis aQ"ords an instance of 
important observations being made simultaneously by diflerent workers in widely 
separated localities. In the last part of the " Annales de la Societe Entomologique 
de France (4"'serie, tome 6="^, 4>"'=trimestre), just received, is a notice by Mons. P. 
Mabille on Lepidoptera observed in Corsica, and at page 557 he, also, mentions 
having found the larvse of this insect in the stems [?] of Rumex crispus, and gives 
■good reasons for considering that 8. clmlcocnomis of Staudinger is a form of 
chrysidiformis, namely, that both feed in the same plant, and pair inter se. — Eds. 
