LEPIDOPTERA REARED FROM OVA OR LARViE. 305 



admirably in most cases have failed lamentably this year. 

 Whole broods — notably about fifty larvse each of Poecilocamjja 

 pojndi, Hoporina croceago, and Asteroscopus sphinx — fed up, 

 apparently quite healthily and normally, until after their last 

 change of skin, and then died off one by one, without a single 

 specimen reaching the pupa. 



To have been successful to any extent with only eighteen 

 species out of a total of sixty-one, is scarcely a good record for 

 the year, but some of the successes have gone far to make up 

 for the failures. Six young larvae of Apatura iris were sent me 

 from Brockenhurst on May 12th ; one died on the journey, and 

 a second refused the sallow I offered it, but the other four fed up 

 rapidly and successfully, and produced imagines — two fair-sized 

 males on June 30th and July 1st, and two fine females on 

 July 4th and 6th. They had pupated respectively on June 8th, 

 10th, 18th, and 23rd. 



I experienced a fair amount of success with the larvae of 

 Zcpliyrus betulce, but a good number died during the pupa stage ; 

 and I reared several specimens of Zephyrus quercus from larvae 

 beaten on Ranmore, but in this case also a great number died as 

 pupae, and some too before pupation. The larvae of Nemeobius 

 liicina died off in great numbers after the last moult, and about 

 forty young larvae of Lyccena astrarche, produced from ova 

 deposited in a pill-box during the walk home from Ranmore, 

 died off before their first moult. 



Among the Sphinges I had a fair amount of success with 

 Sphinx ligustri, Charocampa elpenor, and Smerinthus ocellatus, 

 but considerably less than in former years ; and one day I found 

 a larva in the bark of an old apple tree, which produced a very 

 fine female Sesia myopiformis on July 2nd ; I am led to hope 

 that I may find a number of these larvae in the same tree next 

 year. Nola cucullatella is one of my complete failures, but 

 EiLchelia jacohcece was, if possible, more abundant this year than 

 usual. At Dorking the larvae had all gone down by the end of 

 July, but at Bognor I noticed a lot still quite small at the 

 beginning of September. I bred some Arctia caia in the hope of 

 getting some varieties ; but, though no two are exactly alike, 

 there is no striking divergence. Porthesia similis I hope I have 

 now bred for the last time, for the inconvenience caused by the urti- 

 cating hairs was very great. It appears to me that one gets stung 

 much more readily from the cocoon than from the larva. I was 

 very fortunate with Limantria monacha, for, although I only got 

 about half-a-dozen through, out of some thirty larvae, I obtained 

 a light and dark specimen of both male and female, the darkest 

 male being especially fine. My disasters with Poccilocampa populi 

 I have mentioned above, and a brood of Malacosoma neustria 

 behaved in a similar manner. Out of fifteen larvae of Gastropacha 

 quercifolia, kindly sent me by Mr. J. H. Carpenter, of Leather- 



