274 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Mortality of the Larvae of Acronycta aceris. — Having read Mr. 

 Adkin's note (ante, p. 258) relative to the enormous mortality of A. 

 aceris larva? this season, and having had a very large number of them 

 both taken wild and bred from ova, I can say that I have had the same 

 result with both. During the months of July, August, and September 

 I have taken from fences, trees, and crawling on the ground no less 

 than sixty-seven specimens of this beautiful larva, and the localities 

 I have taken them from are Putney, Barnes, Acton, and Chiswick. 

 In spite of all, I have never at one time had twelve larva? feeding, and 

 the net result has been about thirteen cocoons, and seven of those when 

 opened, instead of containing pupa?, I found enclosed either ichneumous 

 or dried-up larva?. All those taken wild were apparently healthy, and 

 looked full-fed and about to pupate, but at least fifty of them made no 

 attempt to do so, nor would they eat either sycamore, horse-chestnut, 

 or maple ; they simply turned a nasty dull pink colour and dried up. 

 With regard to those reared from ova I experienced the same results, 

 and the few correspondents I sent some to in the North of England 

 and Scotland have all written and informed me that they have done no 

 good with them, so I take it that the disease must have been contracted 

 from the ova. I found that most of those that I reared from ova did 

 well until the last skin, when they died off in the same manner as those 

 taken wild. It may not be out of place here just to give my experience 

 of those bred from ova. I put a female in an ordinary chip-box on 

 Friday, July 7th, and fed her till the Sunday, when she commenced 

 laying her eggs on that night, and continued doing so by night only on 

 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday ; and, although she laid no more, 

 she fed and lived for over a week afterwards, as I did not turn her out 

 until the first lot of larva? emerged, and she was then just alive. One 

 thing I particularly noticed and was surprised to see, and that was, 

 that although in some instances the ova deposited touched each other, 

 in no case did they overlap as I have seen them illustrated ; also that 

 the young larva on first emerging in nearly every instance made its 

 first meal off the shell of the egg. I think this may account for the 

 eggs not being found on the leaves where the young larva? are found in 

 a state of nature. I have carefully looked on sycamore and horse- 

 chestnut and found the young larva?, but never empty ova, and, as 

 they are white after the larva has emerged, they would be conspicuous, 

 and could not be easily overlooked ; also, in spite of the larva? having 

 been so common this year, I never saw more than one on a leaf. I may 

 also mention that I have experienced disease of a similar character in 

 another of this same family, Acronycta psi, but not to the same extent. 

 I shall be glad to hear from anyone else who has bred A. aceris from 

 ova, if he has done better with them or experienced the same result as 

 myself. 1 have also heard that this larva has been found in Scotland 

 this year; surely this must be a mistake. — Gr. F. Leigh; 391, High 

 Road, Chiswick, W. 



Larvae of Acronycta aceris. — I notice in the 'Entomologist' (ante, 

 p. 258) a note by Mr. Adkin re larva? of Acronycta aceris. I too have 



