190 



be broken open to detect the presence of the insect. Emergence of 

 the adults occurs in late September or early October, all the moths 

 appearing within a week of one another. In 1914 it was observed 

 that the invasion of a town came from canes at a distance of 11 miles 

 in a straight line, whence the lights of the town were distinctly visible. 

 That M. smerintha can fly great distances is also proved by an individual 

 having been captured at sea out of sight of land near Rio de Janeiro. 



In spite of their secluded existence, the larvae do not all develop 

 into adults ; some die in the larval stage, others, after pupation, 

 fail to force the way through the exit-hole, while rats destroy a certain 

 number by breaking open the canes. 



These observations differ in a few minor points from those made 

 in 1903 by Dr. Basilo Furtado : the eggs, for example, are laid on 

 leaves of various plants, and presumably on cane in normal conditions, 

 and not on the ground near to the canes as previously recorded. 

 Several points remain to be elucidated. After blooming, the cane 

 dies and the moths emerging from it are obliged to seek other canes 

 on which to oviposit. It is not known how they find these, which 

 are frequently at some kilometres distance. It is not known when 

 pairing takes place ; in their flights through towns they have never 

 been observed in coitu, the females usually being already fertiUsed. 

 The actual method of oviposition has never been observed, nor the 

 manner in which the newly-hatched larva penetrates the cane. The 

 length of the larval stage and of the pupal stage are also unknown. 

 The reason for the sudden invasions of the towns, at intervals of 

 some years, remains to be discovered. These invasions have been 

 observed simultaneously in Sao Paolo, Santos and Rio de Janeiro, and 

 cannot be attributed to favourable local conditions such as abundance 

 of cane. In Sao Paolo, large swarms occurred in 1910 and 1914 ; 

 in the intermediate years the moths appeared at the same time but 

 in much fewer numbers ; at other times it was very rarely that even 

 a single example was seen. 



Paillot (A,). Perezia legeri, sp. n., Microsporidie nouvelle, Parasite des 

 Chenilles de Pieris hrassicae. [Perezia legeri. a new Microsporidium 

 parasitic in the Caterpillars of Pieris brasssicae.] — C.R. Soc. Biol, 

 Paris, Ixxxi, no. 4, 23rd February 1918, pp. 187-189. 



This microsporidium is met with in caterpillars in the adipose 

 tissue and in certain giant cells in the blood. The cause of the hyper- 

 trophy of the blood cells to form the typical giant cells is at present 

 unknown. Probably it is not due to the endocellular parasite itself, 

 since these cells are found in non-parasitised caterpillars. Possibly 

 there may be some connection between them and the larvae of Apanteles, 

 an extremely wide-spread entomophagous parasite of the caterpillars 

 of P. brassicae. 



Gautier (C). Etudes physiologiques et parasitologiques sur les Lepi- 

 dopt^res nuisibles. Sur quelques Faits relatifs aux Larves de 

 Pi6rides. [Physiological and Parasitological Studies on Injurious 

 Lepidoptera. On some Facts relating to Pierid Larvae.] — C R. 

 Soc. Biol, Paris, l.xxxi, no. 4, 23rd February 1918, pp. 197-199. 



A large proportion of the larvae of Pieris brassicae are parasitised 



