﻿288 THB KNTOMOLOGIST. 



of the ' Entomologist ' will let us hear more of it. — J. Arkle ; 

 Chester. 



Irregular Emergence of Ochria (Xanthia) aurago.— I have 

 often noticed a great difference in the period occupied by different 

 species in emerging, but the experience I have had this year with a 

 batch of 0. aurago is, I think, worthy of record. The ova hatched 

 fairly evenly in the spring, and all the larvaB were treated identically 

 the same as were also the pupae. The larvse were protected from 

 cold, and so fed up a trifle more rapidly than they would have in 

 nature. The cocoons were opened on August 7th, when all but five 

 had pupated, and these changed a few days later. The emergencies 

 of the perfect insects were as follows : — August 9th, two ; August 

 14th, one ; August 17th, two ; August 25th, one ; August 28th, one ; 

 August 30th, one ; September 4th, two ; September 6th, two ; from 

 this date to September 20th there were daily emergencies varying 

 between four and fifteen per day ; September 21st, two ; September 

 22nd, two : September 23rd, one ; September 24th, two. Altogether 

 ever eighty-nine per cent, of the pupae produced imagines. The 

 notable point is that forty-six days elapsed between the first emer- 

 gence and the last, despite the fact that the hatching of the larvae 

 did not extend beyond a few days, and that both larvae and pupae had 

 exactly similar treatment. With certain of the Cucullia and other 

 species, whose larvae are to be found for weeks in all stages of 

 development, such variation in emergence is of course usual, but it 

 is the first time I have come across such marked irregularity in a 

 species whose early stages are generally more uniform. — 0. Rippon ; 

 Springfield House, Abingdon-on-Thames. 



Cucullia ltchnitis.— Eeferring to Mr. Spiller's notes on this 

 species in the September ' Entomologist,' I have taken G. lychnitis 

 larvae for many years in the Chiltern Hills, and have frequently seen 

 them in the valleys and low-lying parts. In fact, I have usually 

 found them more abundantly in such situations than in higher and 

 more exposed spots. The larvae undoubtedly love a warm and sunny 

 situation, and do best when the conditions allow them to feed up 

 rapidly ; any situation exposed to cold winds would therefore not be 

 so suitable to their increase as more sheltered quarters. As to larvae 

 of different sizes being found at the same time, that is practically 

 always the same with lychnitis ; indeed, more than once I have taken 

 larvse, and a considerable time after they have pupated I have found 

 other larva not a quarter of an inch in length. As the larva grow, 

 so their food requires to be more substantial, and I have found it 

 unwise in confinement to give the larger larvae anything except green 

 seed-pods. With reference to Mr. Nicholson's note in the November 

 ' Entomologist,' I may say that I have never found the larva of 

 C. lychnitis on anything but Verbascum nigrum, though I have found 

 them very ready — too ready for their health — to eat white mullein in 

 confinement. Further, in referring to low-lying parts of the Chilterns, 

 I don't mean to imply that the ground was in any sense marshy, 

 quite the contrary, though I have often found Verbascum nigrum 

 flourishing in and near ditches, which must be frequently full of 

 water in the winter months. — C. Rippon. 



