72 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



together on the top of my rearing-cage, and proceeded to make a loose 

 silk hybernaculum in which to pass the winter. This it accomplished, 

 for in March, 1898, it was still alive. During April I was, unfortu- 

 nately, unable to attend to it, and in May it was shrivelled up and 

 dead. I think there can be little doubt that it was the larva of L. arion, 

 and that therefore the spring months would be the best time to look for 

 it, and that the help of a lantern might be called in if day work was un- 

 successful. The following are my notes on the larva : — Colour, pale 

 apple-green, surface roughened, white-sprinkled, dorsal line faint, 

 spiracles brownish ; head bilobed, brown, mottled with darker ; body 

 attenuated at extremities, swollen in the middle, sparsely covered with 

 short hairs. Length f in. when extended. — E. B. Nevinson ; 3, Ted- 

 worth Square, Chelsea, S.W. 



Pupation of Smerinthus populi. — In a communication from my 

 brother, Mr. H. L. Sich, dated Whitby, Aug. 11th, 1898, he describes 

 the process by which a larva of S. populi assumed the pupa stage as 

 follows : — 



" Just watched a larva of Smerinthus populi change into a pupa. 

 I noticed the skin of the larva around the claspers had previously 

 become loose. The pupa then began to draw up its body within 

 the larval skin until the latter split on the back of the third segment. 

 This slit increased at both ends, and when it reached the first 

 segment the head of the pupa was withrawn from the skin ; this 

 then slipped down the body, which wriggled out of it. The pupa at 

 first was light green in colour. It was able to move the head both 

 laterally and vertically. The antennae and legs were very distinct. 

 The terminal half of both organs were standing away from the body 

 of the pupa. On the body, below the wing-cases, could be seen the 

 grooves in which the margins of the wing-cases rest. Afterwards the 

 body was drawn up to meet the wings, which then assumed the usual 

 position. The pupa, which was then lying on its side, turned on its 

 back and subsequently became quite normal." 



This larva had duly gone down, but owing to my brother leaving 

 Whitby it had to be taken from the earth before the pupa was formed. 

 — Alfred Sich; "Brentwood," 65, Barrowgate Road, Chiswick. 



Synonymical Note on Colias edusa and C. hyale. — Dr. Chr. Auri- 

 villius (Entomol. Tidskrift, 1898, pp. 61-4) has recently discussed at 

 some length the synonymy of two species of Colias usually known to 

 British Lepidopterists as hyale and edusa. The conclusions arrived at 

 are as follows : — 



1. Colias hyale, Linn. 1758 & 1761; God. 1819; Boisd. 1836, etc. 



palasno, Esper, 1777 ; Hiibn. 1798-1805. 

 kirbyi, Lewis, 1872 ; Kirby, 1896. 



2. Colias eleoto, Linn. 1763. 



electra, Linn. 1767. 

 var. croceus, Fourcr. 1785. 



hyale, Esper, 1777; Hiibn. 1798-1803. 



edusa, Fabr. 1787 ; God. 1819 ; Boisd. 1836, etc. 

 so that the species enumerated in the list of British butterflies (ante, 

 p. 32) as 0. edusa will apparently be known in future as C. electo var. 

 croceus, — G. W. Kirkaldy. 



