292 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



harm to the insects, when the males were killed, and the females 

 kept for eggs, which they deposited freely on the bottom and 

 sides of the boxes, somewhat after the manner of A. caia. The 

 eggs when first laid are primrose-coloured, but just before hatching 

 they turn to a beautiful purple colour. 



My specimens were first stupefied with chloroform, and then 

 killed with oxalic acid. This is a method I can strongly recom- 

 mend to all entomologists as being most satisfactory, leaving the 

 insects operated upon beautifully relaxed and ready for immediate 

 setting. Of the forty-eight specimens which I obtained, not more 

 than six were in first-rate condition, and, owing to my sacrificing 

 all the females for eggs (some obstinately refused to lay), my 

 specimens, to say the least of it, are not so fine as they would 

 have been if I had killed them as soon as captured ; still, as the 

 seventeen females from which I obtained eggs laid some 2261 

 eggs, or an average of 183 each, I suppose there is no reason for 

 complaint. Very few of the eggs laid were infertile; some, 

 although they changed colour, did not seem to have sufiicient 

 strength to break the shell, and so died without emerging. The 

 eggs hatched in from thirteen to eighteen days ; fourteen batches 

 averaged fifteen days' duration in the egg state. 



The young larvse at once commenced to demolish their egg- 

 shells, on which they seem to live for the first two or three days. 

 I gave mine a variet}' of food -plants, but the majority preferred 

 raspberry, which I supplied them with until October 2nd. Some 

 of them I then sleeved on 12-inch pots containing a strong growth 

 of dandelion, ground-ivy, plantain, and dock, also on healtliy 

 plants of ground-ivy which I had potted some time previously, 

 and the larvae are at present quite at home and doing very well. 

 I have placed the pots in a room having a south-west aspect, and 

 shall examine them on an average once a week until spring arrives. 

 There will be neither fire nor gas in the room, so that a fairly 

 even temperature will be maintained. The two essentials seem 

 to be to keep them dry and not overcrowded. If the least crowded, 

 they have not the slightest objection to eating their brothers and 

 sisters, especially those that have just moulted. A correspondent 

 informs me that of forty-five newly-hatched larvae, he could only 

 find thirty a few days after, and was quite sure that none had died 

 a "natural death." Mr. Porritt lost a number last year through 

 this cause after they had safely passed the rigours of a very severe 

 winter, he having occasionally to thaw the larv£e. 



The Bev. C. Benthal informed me that he had once taken the 

 chrysalis of C. Jura amongst some dandelion in his garden, and 

 that he had on more than one occasion discovered the larvee 

 feeding on dandelion. 



The following is a list of the food-plants, on all of which 

 larvae of C. hera will feed. I am inclined to think, from the 

 habit this species has of resting on and amongst ivy and holly, 



