28 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



authority of an example in the possession of Mr. Allis, taken 

 some years ago near York ; but the species was not inchided 

 (or rather was given as a "reputed British species") in Mr. 

 Doubledav's ' Syuonymic List of British Lepidoptera' (ed. 



]859). 



Agamogenesis. — In my little pamphlet on ' Physiological 

 Classification' I gave a number of instances in which female 

 insects had produced fertile eggs, and even living young, 

 without the possibility of having had previous access to 

 males of the same species : these were all cited from works 

 of the most eminent naturalists of the Continent, and are en- 

 tirely trustworthy ; but still there is something in all records 

 that makes you think, if not say, " I should like to try that 

 experiment myself" In my own instance this opportunity 

 has been afforded. In one of my breeding-cages were placed 

 three full-fed larvae of Nyssia pilosaria ; they soon became 

 pupae ; and at the end of February and beginning of March 

 three females emerged ; they continued very quietly on the 

 sides of the cage during the day, but at night amused them- 

 selves with busily perambulating some fallen and withered 

 leaves, and with inserting their telescope-like ovipositors into 

 every cranny and crevice they could find. Of course I-sup- 

 posed they were laying eggs, and still suppose so, but of this 

 I cannot be sure. However, on Sunday, the 17th of April, I 

 found the cage positively swarming with minute loopers, 

 which, bearing in mind as I did the three female pilosarias, 

 I concluded at once to be juveniles of that species. A fort- 

 night has elapsed, and there is now no doubt on the subject : 

 they have been feeding on birch, which, if it shared my feel- 

 ings, was anxiously expecting the emergence of a brood of 

 Eudromis versicolor, certain twigs embossed with the eggs of 

 that species having been deftly affixed to the twigs of birch 

 provided for their sustenance. The pilosarias, now a fort- 

 night old, are rather restless, wandering frequently off their 

 food-plant, and reminding one forcibly of " Japhet in search 

 of a father." Still the fact, as here narrated, is amply suf- 

 ficient to prove that the union of the sexes, in this particular 

 species, is not absolutely essential to the production of abun- 

 dant and vigorous progeny : whether they arrive at maturity 

 remains to be seen. — Edward Newman. 



