62 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



or some other enemy. From time to time I found the three larvae 

 which remained feeding and growing satisfactorily down to the end of 

 September, when cold nights set in. At that time one of the larvae 

 was full-fed, another was in the fourth skin, whereas the third speci- 

 men had not advanced beyond the third stage. On October 7th, I 

 opened the sleeve once more, and discovered that the smallest larva 

 had disappeared, the largest was still healthy, and the remaining one 

 was afflicted with scouring ; it eventually died before reaching full 

 growth. As the nights were growing colder I brought the two larvie 

 indoors, and placed them in the window of a room facing south. The 

 full-fed larva continued to eat a little until the 13th inst., and during 

 the night of the 17th inst. completed pupation. Twenty days after- 

 wards, on Nov. 6th, fearing the pupa might perish, I removed it to 

 the warmer atmosphere of the kitchen, taking the precaution to place 

 a wet sponge in the breeding-cage. On the evening of the 9th inst. a 

 female imago emerged, but, unfortunately, it proved to be a cripple. 

 This may have been caused by being exposed to too high a temperature, 

 as the larva appeared to be perfectly healthy up to the time of pupating, 

 and I have little doubt would have emerged by the 11th or 12th inst. 

 had it been allowed to remain in the cooler room. It will be observed 

 from the preceding notes that these larvfe were fed under perfectly 

 natural conditions, and therefore it is resonable to conclude that many 

 other individuals of a second brood of A. iris have appeared in the New 

 Forest during the present year. — C. H. Watson ; Streatham Hill, S.W., 

 December, 1893. 



Second Brood of Larentia viridaria (pectinitaria). — Major Still, 

 in his remarks on second broods of Lepidoptera in 1893 (Entom. 18), 

 expresses himself doubtful whether a few specimens of the above-named 

 species, met with at the beginning of September, ought to be regarded 

 as a second brood or not, and states that he has never met with it so 

 late before. I do not recollect having seen a second brood recorded, 

 but I think there can be very little doubt that, as with so many species 

 which ordinarily hybernate in the larval state, a few forward larvae do 

 feed up rapidly, and produce imagines in the early autumn. At Sandown 

 I took a few specimens of L. viridaria in September, 1891 and 1892, 

 but have never seen the species there during July or August. This 

 exactly bears out Major Still's experience ; and the similar occurrence 

 in three consecutive years certainly goes against the idea that the 

 September specimens might be merely casual examples of retarded 

 emergence. — Louis B. Prout ; 12, Greenwood Eoad, Dalston, N.E., 

 January 11th, 1894. 



Macroglossa stellatarum and Colour. — In reference to the 

 abstract from the paper by Mr. Shaw (Entom. 21), is it not a fact 

 that insects continue to visit the same species of flower during several 

 successive hours ? for if, on the contrary, an insect were first to visit 

 a primrose, then a violet, and then a geranium, although the insect 

 itself might feel no ill-effects, yet I fail to see how cross-fertilization of 

 the flowers mentioned could be effected ; and it would be even more 

 difficult to account for those scarcer flowers which are more or less 

 sparsely distributed in every locality. But in such a case as this a few 



