THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 521 



continental supply when they are comparatively nutnerous in 

 the autumn ? We may almost answer in the negative, vi'hen 

 we consider the range of the species (from Kent to Cornwall, 

 and from Devon to Yorkshire), and the fineness and perfection 

 of some specimens we have taken. I am quite aware that one 

 fact is worth a whole volume of argument or theory, but for 

 lack of the former we are compelled to make use of the latter, 

 and sometimes by using one the other is found. — G. B. 

 Corhin. 



Lasiommata Megcera. — I do not think the occurrence of a 

 bipupilled spot near the apical angle of the fore wings of 

 Lasiommata Megaera is uncommon. I had never examined 

 the insect with a view to detect the variation in question 

 until attention was drawn to it by Mr. Byron Noel's enquiry 

 in your last number (Entom. vi. 485), but I find I have in my 

 collection sixteen specimens, — five captured in Yorkshire, 

 two in Ireland (Howth), five in the Isle of Man, and four in 

 Guernsey: of these, three from Guernsey and three from the 

 Isle of Man have the spot bipupilled; the variety is not con- 

 fined to either sex, but, so far as my collection goes, to the 

 insects from Guernsey and the Isle of Man. I hope others 

 will examine and report on the examples in their cabinets. 

 The variation is, I think, of but slight importance amongst 

 the Satyridae, and it occurs in a considerable number of the 

 species, amongst which may be mentioned Hiera, Msera, 

 Cordula, Pasiphae, and Tithonus, of all of which I possess 

 specimens with a single, and others with a double-eyed spot. 

 — Edwin Birchall. 



Bomhyx Quercus a tvliole Year in the Pupa state. — Is it 

 not rather unusual for Bombyx Quercus to pass a whole year 

 in the pupa state ? Two caterpillars of mine spun up at the 

 end of June, 1872, and finding that neither of the moths 

 appeared at the usual time I kept them till this year, when on 

 July 29lh a fine male emerged from one chrysalis, and, four 

 days after, another from a caterpillar that had spun up on 

 July 2nd this year.—//. A. Bull; Harrow, Sept. 8, 1873. 



[It would be interesting to know whether my correspondent 

 admits the distinctness of the two races, formerly confused 

 under the name of Bombyx Quercus, because they differ in 

 respect of the time passed in the pupa state, and this will 

 probably explain the fact he records. — Edward Newu/an.] 



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