THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 9.] DECEMBER, MDCOOLXIV. [Price 6d. 



Description of the Larva of Polyommatus Phlceas (Small 

 Copper). — Without that attentive and unremitting observa- 

 tion which I believe has not hitherto been bestowed on the 

 subject, I am iniable to say, with anything approaching to 

 certainty, whether we have one, two or three broods of this 

 brilliant Httle butterfly ; its greater abundance at the begin- 

 ning of June, the beginning of August, and beginning of 

 October, favour the idea that there are three broods; and it is 

 quite certain that many of those larvae which we find during 

 the entire month of August, and which become pupa) in Sep- 

 tember, appear as butterflies at the end of that month or 

 beginning of October : are we to suppose that some of the 

 pupa) reu)ain in that state throughout the winter, and do not 

 eff'ect their final cliange until the following summer, so that 

 the October and June flights are really portions of the same 

 brood .? 1 am not aware of any instance of the eggs of a 

 butterfly remaining in that state more than twenty days, and 

 I find that ten or twelve days is the more usual period ; so 

 that there is no reason to suppose that in this particular 

 instance the eggs survive the winter ; neither have I hitherto 

 found any sufficient reason for supposing that the imago hy- 

 bernates. The subject is worthy of investigation, and 1 trust 

 my readers will favour the 'Entomologist' with the results 

 of their researches. The e^g is laid on the leaves of several 

 species of Rumex, as R. obtusifolius, R. pulcher, R. acetosa, 

 R. acetosella (docks and sorrels) ; and the larva emerges in 

 a few days, not less than ten and seldom more than fifteen : 

 it is full-grown in about twenty days, and then rests on the 

 under side of the dock-leaf in a flat position, closely ap- 

 pressed to the surface ; if disturbed or annoyed it falls from 

 its food-plant, and assumes a crescentic form, the two ex- 

 tremities approximating, but not meeting ; after a time it 

 resumes its wonted appearance, and glides over the surface 

 of any object on which it may happen to rest, exactly in the 



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