91 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



rate, although kept in the same box and fed on the same 

 food ; some grew very slowly, and when about five lines long 

 left of feeding, evidently preparing to hybernate ; the others 

 grew very rapidly, and upon attaining the full size (which 

 they did at the beginning of December) about half of them 

 changed to pupaj, the rest, like the small ones, settling them- 

 selves quietly down for their winter's sleep. From time to 

 time 1 placed fresh food in the box, but they did not move 

 till the second week in February, when some got restless ; 

 however, they would not feed, and only just nibbled the ends 

 of the food. The first week in March, not having given them 

 fresh food for two or three days, I examined the box care- 

 fully, and was astonished to find but two larvae alive ; of the 

 others there remained only the hairs and a few headless and 

 mangled bodies. As for the pupae, their shells alone showed 

 what had been : these cannibals had, commencing at the 

 heads, cleared out the bodies of every one of them. The two 

 survivors, 1 suppose, had been having a desperate duel, both 

 of them being somewhat torpid and very weak. I tried my 

 best to rear them, but failed, as they refused to turn vege- 

 tarians : and so both, much to my annoyance, slowly and 

 miserably died. Such bloodthirsty larvas ought to have pro- 

 duced remarkable "tigers." — Jas. A. Forster ; 38, Skinner 

 Street., Clerkenwetl, May 14, 1868. 



Acronycla Alni. — In August last I found a caterpillar of 

 this species feeding on oak ; after coming to its full size it 

 spun up, and from the pupa there emerged, on the 2nd inst., 

 a magnificent male specimen of the perfect insect. This is 

 the first record of the species, as far as I am aware, in this 

 neighbourhood. —O. P. -Cambridge ; May 4, 1868. 



Deilepliila lineata at Plymouth. — Last year three or four 

 specimens of Sphinx lineata were taken in the neighbour- 

 hood of Plymouth (one in my own garden), and during the 

 last few weeks another has been captured. A female of last 

 year laid eggs, from which many caterpillars were produced. 

 They were fed on vine-leaves, but unfortunately died after 

 attaining a good size. I saw all the moths myself, but not 

 the larvae, which I am told were of a purple colour. Another 

 of these moths was captin-ed in the same locality the year 

 before.— J. Gatcomhe ; 8, Lower Durnford Street, Stone- 

 house, Devon, May 12, 1868. 



