ENTOMOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Ill 



long out of sight that I turned out the contents of the pan, 

 and found it at the bottom, ichneumoned. It noay seem 

 hardly worth relating this experiment as it was incomplete, 

 but that others may have better opportunities of learning 

 whether bred larvae may not be n)ade to assume their proper 

 colouring on supplying artificially the colour of their natural 

 haunts. The larva of C. nupta is found during the whole of 

 June ; its life, in this stage, extending over a period of four 

 or five weeks, I cannot speak more accurately, not having 

 bred it from the egg. 



Of Biston hiriaria I have only to say that a large number 

 that I had from the egg were dull looking, of a brown colour, 

 somewhat inclining to Indian red ; the markings were not 

 clear. It is just possible that this redness may be owing to 

 their being kept in red earthenware pans. They would cling 

 to their food with as much pertinacity as their wild brothers : 

 these, which 1 often found nearly full grown on tree trunks, 

 had all their dark chain-like markings. They are more 

 conspicuous than C. uupia. Two only showed any remark- 

 able difference ; these were brought to me off lime, and were 

 almost exactly the colour of the young lime leaves; so 

 unlike the ordinary type of B. hiriaria that at first I was at 

 a loss to identify ihem. Of these two larvae one retained its 

 peculiar tint till it went into the earth; the other, until I 

 preserved it. The application of heat quickly brought it to 

 the colour of ihe others that bad been previously preserved, 

 and from which I cannot now distinguish it. 



I am not for a moment supposing that all larvae kept in 

 red pans should turn red, but that in B. hiriaria there-is a 

 wide difference in colour between such larvae as have been 

 kept in an unnatural condition and those that are found at 

 large. Of these, a good specimen, with its dark, diamond- 

 shaped markings, is anything but monotonous in colour, and 

 has a good claim to beauty as it basks in the morning sun. 

 40. Klgin Crescent, Deceml)er 21, ls77. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL RAMBLES, 1877. 



iW J. B. HODGKINSON. 

 (Continued from p. 82.) 



IjEFork the end of July 1 paid a visit to the top of 

 Yewharrow, Wiiherslack, to look up a lot of Argyresthia 

 aurulentella and A. dilecleUa Iroui the juniper. • I beat 



