5 Paea 
VOR; 
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7 ‘f. . : 
MAR 1 9 199} 
Vou. LIV.] 
SOME NOTES ON REARING HREBIA EPIPHRON. 
By THE LATE J. ALDERSON. 
[The following paper was placed in my hands by the late 
Mr. Alderson for inclusion in my then contemplated monograph 
of Erebia epiphron. The late Mr. Tutt had evidently intended 
it for his never completed ‘‘ Natural History of British Butter- 
flies’ (cp. int. Record, vol. xviii, p. 265).—H. R.-B.] 
The ova were laid by a @? taken at Honister Pass on 
July 1st, 1906, by my friend Mr. George Wilkinson of Workington. 
The insect was in cop. when captured, and Mr. Wilkinson boxed 
both the ¢ and the ? in one pill-box, and sent the box to me by 
_ post. Both insects were alive when I received them, and the 2 
had already commenced ovipositing, undeterred by its confined 
conditions or the presence of the 3.* About forty ova had been 
laid, chiefly on the sides of the box; a few were attached to the 
top and bottom of the box, and others were unattached. I took 
the ¢ out of the box and placed it with some cut blades of grass 
in a tumbler, the mouth of which I covered with leno. The 
insect very soon commenced ovipositing on the grass blades. I 
placed the tumbler outside on the window-sill, in such a position 
that the insect would get sunlight, but not the direct rays of the 
midday sun. Sunlight, however, did not seem to be a necessary 
factor in the process of egg-laying, for oviposition took place both 
when the sun was shining and when it was obscured. On the 
first day of the insect’s confinement in the tumbler about fifteen 
ova were deposited on the grass-blades; about twelve were laid on 
the second day, and only three or four on the third day. I had 
fed the insect each day, but on the third day after its arrival it 
seemed to have little strength left, so I placed it in the cyanide 
bottle. One or two of the ova had been deposited on the leno 
covering of the tumbler, and the remainder were laid on the blades 
of grass. On several occasions I watched the process of oviposi- 
tion. Before depositing the egg, the insect, clinging to the 
grass-stems, incurved her abdomen, often to an extreme degree, 
and felt about with the tip of the abdomen among the blades of 
grass for a suitable position in which to place the ovum. On one 
*It is a very easy butterfly to get ova from. I find the ? generally lays a few 
eggs in the pill-box.—G. W. 
ENTOM.—wMaRCH, 1921. F 
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