^i^ 392 



4^»<^- 



Straw colour, and about a line and a half long ; but although 1 sup- 

 plied them with young shoots of buckthorn, I could not rear them : 

 and on searching the plant about a week after, I found several eggs 

 which had assumed the straw colour but none hatched, by which it 

 appears that those I took home, from being kept in a warm room, were 

 hatched several days sooner than they would have been if left on the 

 plant. On a subsequent search I found several caterpillars, of differ- 

 ent ages, from which I selected the largest (about half grown), but 

 these being infested with Ichneumons, I afterwards obtained three 

 from the buckthorn and one from the berry -bearing alder, which were 

 nearly full fed. In this state of growth they were of a deep green co- 

 lour, with a whitish line along each side, and exhibited, in certain 

 lights, a very short pubescence of a purplish colour, and, like all the 

 others, were found on the midrib of the upper surface of the young 

 leaves, while the shell of the egg was often to be seen on one of the 

 lower leaves, showing that they do not, like the larvae of Papilio Ma- 

 chaon and those of the genus Pontia, eat the shell of the egg, but I 

 observed a caterpillar eating its cast-off skin. Of the four in my breed- 

 ing cage one attached itself to the midrib of the underside of a leaf, 

 one to the stem of the plant and two to the top of the cage ; they were 

 attached by the tail and had a loose band round them, and changed 

 into chrysalides of a green colour, with a yellow line on each side : 

 the butterflies, both male and female, were produced in nineteen days. 

 When searching the buckthorn for the above I found two caterpil- 

 lars of a beautiful golden green colour, with a yellow line along each 

 side, their hinder pair of pro-legs and a line extending over the next 

 pair burnt umber : these produced Scotosia Rhamnata. Caterpillars 

 of Porthesia auriflua, Polia flavocincta, Lampetia connectaria and 

 Abraxas Grossulariata were also found feeding on the buckthorn, and 

 in the breeding cage one which produced a female of Alcis repanda- 

 ta, fed on it in preference to oak (from which it was taken) and a va- 

 riety of other plants which were constantly kept in the cage : another 

 caterpillar of Alcis repandata would only feed on the blackthorn. 



W. Gaze. 



Laveuham, Aug. 9, 1842. 



JOHN VAN VOORST, W\ aHH^^^^fir/ PATERNOSTEK ROW. 



