NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 87 



February 5th, all the other P. Podalirius emerged ; P. Machaon 

 first made an appearance on January 28th, and I have since had 

 nine or ten more. As I write this a superb specimen of that 

 noble butterfly is drying itself in the cage. S. pojnili and S. 

 ocellatus appeared a few days ago, and I also bred three foreign 

 examples of P'leris Daplidice all in magnificent condition. I think 

 that I have said enough to show that where possible it is an 

 immense advantage to force those Lepidoptera which hybernate 

 in the pupa state. I have an idea that those which pass the 

 shortest time in that state are less liable to failure at the time of 

 emergence than chrysalides which are compelled to run a 

 gauntlet of evils, such as becoming too dry or the reverse, for 

 nine and sometimes ten months. Out of about 30 specimens bred 

 by me this winter, I have had but one failure, which was a P. 

 Podalirius, and that was rather an accident, as I found the imago 

 on its back in a little water which was at the bottom of the 

 breeding-cage vainly endeavouring to rise. As it turned out 

 afterwards, one pair of wings reached their proper size, the others 

 never grew at all. — B. Pritchard ; Frankwell Nursery, Shrews- 

 hnxy, Februar}^ 8, 1881. 



Larva of Cidaria fulvata. — I fear Mr. Gervase F. Mathew 

 has made a mistake in his description of the supposed larva of 

 Cidaria fulvata, in the March number of the 'Entomologist' 

 (Entom. xiv. 67). Probably by the time the April number is out 

 some imagos will have appeared from the larvae described, and, if 

 so, I have no doubt they will prove to be not C. fulvata, but 

 Anticlea hadiata, the different varieties of the larva of which Mr. 

 Mathew has described. Years ago I fell into the same mistake 

 myself, but fortunately waited for the appearance of the imagos 

 before publishing description. I had beaten out these larvae very 

 freely at the beginning of June from wild rose bushes here, about 

 which in July C. fidvata was always plentiful. I had no doubt 

 whatever of their being that species, and as such described them 

 in my note-book. Nor did I scarcely suspect the error when no 

 imagos appeared in my cages in July, nor until the following 

 spring, when I reared from them a splendid series of Anticlea 

 hadiata. Several years after I found the larva of C. fulvata, and 

 a description of it will be found in the ' Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine' for May, 1880. — Geo. T. Porritt; Highroyd House, 

 Huddersfield, March 2, 1881. 



