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ON BREEDING THE VARIETIES OF THE ORANGE-MOTH 



(ANGERONA PRUNARIA). 



By Geo. J. Grapes. 



In the summer of 1882, at Colchester, Essex, from a few pupae 

 of this insect I obtained, in due course, ova, and subsequently 

 larvae, which hybernated during the following winter, secreted 

 among withered leaves of sallow, on which tree they had been 

 feeding. Before hj^bernation they attained a length of about 

 three quarters of an inch, and were of the ordinary whitish or 

 greenish gray colour, characteristic of the larvae of the normal 

 type of A. prunaria. These, with few exceptions, survived the 

 winter, and produced many series of fine imagines. 



Having been so successful in breeding this species, the idea 

 occurred to me of i^airing some of them with the orange-banded 

 variety of the male, specimens of which I was fortunate in securing 

 rather plentifully at dusk, on the outskirts of an adjacent wood, 

 about midsummer, 1883. In this instance, also, I succeeded in 

 hybernating the larvae, which varied in colour from pale gray to 

 almost black, apparently according to the variety typified ; and in 

 the ensuing summer my efi'orts were rewarded by the acquisition 

 of several fine examples of the varieties of both sexes, viz., two 

 varieties of the male, — one, deep orange, suffused with unusually 

 dark fuscous irrorations, in some instances slightly confluent; 

 and the other, light fuscous crossed with bright orange bands ; 

 and the ordinary variety of the female, viz., plain bruwn, with 

 light yellow transverse fascia. 



This continued success induced me to try the effect of the 

 undermentioned experimental pairings : — Normal female with 

 orange-banded var. male ; var. female with orange-banded var. 

 male ; var. female with normal male ; from which I obtained 

 many more fine examples of the brown varieties of A. prunaria, 

 as well as a few aberrations, including an exceedingly pale one, 

 in which the fuscous or brown colour was of the faintest tint, 

 indeed barely discernible, though the outlines of the transverse 

 yellow bands were sufficiently distinct to identify the female 

 variety ; also a variation of the normal type of the same sex, in 

 which the ground colour was of the typical yellow, but the dark 

 striated spots larger and more distinct than usual. The last I 



