ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Ixxiil 



brought from darkness into an obscure light, — the mere degree 

 of light, apart from heat, seeming to have little effect : replaced 

 where the temperature was about 58°, and observed an hour or 

 two afterwards, it was found to have resumed its torpid state. 



" April 14. — Found it standing, risen from having been recum- 

 bent on its side, but not active ; temperature of the dark cupboard 

 then 59°. 



" April 18. — At 60° it was torpid : it seemed indeed dead, and 

 showed no signs of life till the temperature was raised to about 

 75° by placing it on a stove ; after a few minutes at this tempera- 

 ture it exhibited marks of languid life, by a tremulous motion and 

 partial opening of its wings. Two days later it was found dead. 



"Another butterfly of the same kind was found active on the 

 28th of April, at a temperature of 62°. It became torpid at 56°. 



"May 1st. — It was found torpid at 58°; it became active at 

 63°. On the following day it was not roused by a temperature of 

 95° ; it was dead. 



" A Vanessa lo was found torpid on a garden walk, when the 

 temperature on the 29th of April (the morning of the day on which 

 it was found) must have been below 40° ; was placed under the 

 same circumstances for observation. 



" On the 2nd of May it was torpid at 59° : after ten minutes at 

 66° it became active. 



" May 4th. — Torpid at 62° in the dark ; after a few minutes' 

 exposure to a temperature of 67° in light it became active. 



" May 11th. — Torpid at 57°; slightly active at 63°; became 

 again torpid by a reduction of temperature to about 60°. 



" May 13th. — Torpid at 57° 5 on exposure to a dull light at 

 61° it rose on its feet, before recumbent on its side, showing when 

 thus standing only slight marks of vitality ; yet in a few minutes, 

 after gently touching its antennae, and breathing on it, it became 

 pretty active. 



" May 15th. — Torpid at 58° in the dark; became active in a 

 few minutes at 62° in a dull light, the sky being overcast. Two 

 days after it was found dead at a temperature of 59°, its wings 

 expanded, seeming to denote that it had not died in a torpid 

 state. 



"In describing the above observations I have used the word 

 torpid rather than a state of sleep, from the belief that the butter- 

 flies, the subjects of them, were, when motionless, not under the 

 influence of sleep, but of that kind of torpor to which certain 

 animals are subject in their hybernating condition, — one in which 

 the vital functions are all but suspended, and in consequence the 



