A LIFE-HISTORY OF APATURA IRIS. 195 



seems impossible for lack of space, and therefore the second 

 hypothesis must be adopted. The changes implied in it are so 

 enormous as to stagger belief, were it not that the specimens are 

 still, and will probably remain, in statu quo to prove the matter. 

 It really seems almost parallel with the case of a man retiring to 

 his room for the purpose of undressing, and then discovering that 

 his clothes contained two persons,— a man with his head in one 

 boot, and a woman with her head in the other, and all their feet 

 in his hat ! 



Datchet, Bucks, July 26, 1881. 



[As Mr. Kay-Kobinson suggests, " The changes implied are so 

 enormous as to stagger belief." I have examined the subject 

 carefully, and find the insects just as described and figured ; but 

 as to how they came to be in such an extraordinary position is 

 past my comprehension. — J. T. C] 



A LIFE-HISTORY OF APATURA IRIS. 



By Albert Brydges Farn. 



On 19th July, 1880, I caught in one of the Sussex woods a 

 female of Apatura Iris, and on the following day obtained two 

 others. I placed these three females in a box with a spray of the 

 broad-leaved sallow and some crushed fruit. They remained in 

 this box until my return home, and were during this time 

 quiescent and had laid no eggs. On July 22nd I covered a sallow 

 bush with a huge bag of leno, and into it put the three females. 

 While they were in the leno bag on the sallow bush, I fed them 

 by crushing raspberries against the gauze, the juice of which 

 they sucked up with avidity. I first observed that they had 

 deposited eggs on July 25th, and do not think these eggs could 

 have hitherto escaped my notice, as I looked most carefully two 

 or three times daily. The eggs were laid on the upper side of 

 the leaves, and I noticed as many as six eggs on one leaf and five 

 eggs on another. Under perfectly natural conditions I believe — 

 having frequently watched the females of ^. Iris ovipositing — that 

 no more than one egg is laid on a leaf. The eggs are semi- 

 spherical and when first laid of a green colour, similar to those of 

 Smerinthus populi. I watched these eggs from day to day until I 

 left home for ten days, and no alteration of colour had up to that 



