6 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



it. Suffice it to say, that three starvations, owing to ray 

 absence from home, left me but four miserable caterpillars, 

 which did not assume the pupa slate till the end of July and 

 the second week of August. These are still alive, and have 

 not emerged as an autumn brood, though I cannot tell what 

 they miglit have done under more favourable circumstances. 

 The perfect insect I have captured in May, June, and on the 

 4lh and •26th of August in different years. I again noticed 

 in October last variously-sized larvse upon the same bush. 

 Perhaps this continuation of appearance may be accounted 

 for in a similar manner to that of Salicis, whose eggs, laid in 

 the spring, produce moths the same summer, laying eggs 

 which hatch, but the caterpillars are some fast and some 

 slow feeders: the former quickly spin up, and emerge in 

 September, after a week only in the pupa state ; the latter go 

 into cocoon before the winter, to produce the spring imagos ; 

 whilst the hybernating larva3 are, in fact, their own nephews 

 and nieces." In answer to some objections of mine to the 

 above remarks, the same correspondent. writes: — " 1 hasten 

 to answer the queries in your letter of this morning. In the 

 first place, I never wished you to understand that the alder 

 leaves were completely drawn together, but the sides are 

 simply bent upward, and secured in that position by silken 

 threads. These leaves are always more or less eaten round 

 the edges where the larva feeds, and, of course, are very 

 easily seen. I believe these webs are spun previously to 

 changing each skin, and that the caterpillar eats the exterior 

 of the leaf, retiring into the centre at the approach of day. 

 The lines of silk cover, perhaps, an inch square, but are 

 slight, and can scarcely be dignified by the term ' web,' which 

 I have used. The pupae were kept in my bedroom, which has 

 two windows facing the south-east and two to the south-west, 

 which tend to keep it very cool in winter. I do not think the 

 emergence was premature, as Tersata, Vitalbata, Senecionis, 

 and Tinea?, kept under similar circumstances, appeared at 

 the same time at which 1 had previously taken the wild 

 insect." — G. H. Raynor ; The Ferns, Dauhury, December 

 18, 1871. 



EntoDiological Notes, Captures, Sfc. 

 Note on Acidalia Luornata. — In July of last year I took a 

 few Inornata, from which I was fortunate to get a few eggs. 



