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casual glance at the figure this seems very apt, but when we remember 
that this particular butterfly needs no protection; that it is one of the 
markedly distasteful species; and that it is mimicked by other butter- 
flies in different parts of the world on account of the fact that it is so 
distasteful—we see at once that it needs no protective resemblance, and 
that therefore Mr. Carrington’s idea is quite fanciful. In settling in 
vast numbers upon a branch these butterflies could not well take any 
other positions and be at peace with each other. 
ON THE LARYA OF EPHESTIA KUEHNIELLA. 
Apropos of our review on p. 44 of the current volume of [LisEct 
LIFE of Mr. Danysz’ paper concerning the embryonic testicle of the 
larva of Ephestia kuehniella, M. A. Giard ealls our attention to Mr. EB. 
B. Poulton’s paper in the Transactions of the Entomological Society 
of London, for 1888, in which the same facts are virtually given. For 
the moment we had overlooked the fact that this discovery had pre- 
viously been made by Mr. Poulton. 
PARASITE OF THE JAPANESE GYPSY MOTH. 
Last November we received from the Rev. H. Loomis, of Yokohama, 
a small box containing cocoons of a Microgaster parasitic upon Oecne- 
ria japonica, which, it will be remembered, we are trying to intro- 
duce for use against the Gypsy Moth in New England. Upon exami- 
nation it was found that the majority of the cocoons were empty, and a 
large proportion had been infested with a secondary parasite of the 
subfamily Pteromaline. 
THE EFFECT OF LOW TEMPERATURE UPON SILKWORM EGGS. 
In the January, 1894, issue of Le Naturaliste, M. Henri Coupin 
reviews the experiments of M. Pictet, of Geneva, on the influence of 
low temperatures upon animals. Among the curious observations 
made by M. Pictet, those upon the living eggs of silkworms have a 
peculiar interest from the fact that a practical result of some impor- 
tance was unexpectedly arrived at. 
It was found that silkworm eggs could be subjected to a tempera- 
ture of —40° (presumably Centigrade) without endangering their 
development, and that when the refrigerated eggs were taken out of 
the cold chamber and subjected to normal conditions of temperature 
at the time of the leafing of the mulberry trees, they hatched with 
almost no risk of attack by the maladies which are so common to silk- 
worm eggs that have been left to themselves and have endured several 
months of fluctuating temperature. In other words, the parasites of. 
the eggs do not, under conditions of low temperature, find themselves 
in a Situation favorable to their growth, and the worms issue practi- 
cally insured against the risks so formidable to them and to the silk 
industry. 
