APPENDIX. 45 



Smerinthus tiliae, A female, which had just emerged from the 

 pupa, was caught on June 24th ; on the 29th pairing took place ; 

 on the 1st of July she laid about eighty eggs, and died the following 

 day. She lived nine days, taking no food during this period, and 

 she only survived the deposition of eggs by a single day. 



Macroglossa stellatarum. A female, captured on the wing and 

 already fertilized, lived in confinement from June 28th to July 4th. 

 During this time she laid about eighty eggs, at intervals and 

 singly; she then disappeared, and must have died, although the 

 body could not be found among the grass at the bottom of the 

 cage in which she was confined. 



Saturnia pyri. A pair which quitted the cocoons on the 24th or 

 25th of April, remained in coitu from the 26th until May 2nd 

 six or seven days ; the female then laid a number of eggs, and died. 



Psyche graminella. The fertilized female lives some days, and 

 the unfertilized female over a week (Speyer). 



Solenobia triquetrella. ' The parthenogenetic form (I refer to 

 the one which I have shown to be parthenogenetic in Oken's ' Isis,' 

 1846, p. 30) lays a mass of eggs in the abandoned case, soon after 

 emergence. The oviposition causes her body to shrivel up, and 

 some hours afterwards she dies. The non-parthenogenetic female 

 of the same species remains for many days, waiting to be fertilized ; 

 if this does not occur, she lives over a week.' ' The parthenogenetic 

 female lives for hardly a day, and the same is true of the partheno- 

 genetic females of another species of Solenobia ' (8. inconspicuella ?). 

 Letter from Dr. Speyer. 



Psyche calcella, 0. The males live a very short time ; ' those 

 which leave the cocoon in the evening are found dead on the 

 following morning, with their wings fallen off, at the bottom of 

 their cage.' Dr. Speyer. 



Eupithecia, sp. (Geometridae], 'when well-fed, live for three to four 

 weeks in confinement ; the males fertilize the females frequently, 

 and the latter continue to lay eggs when they are very feeble, and 

 are incapable of creeping or flying.' Dr. Speyer. 



The conclusions and speculations in the text seem to be suffi- 

 ciently supported from this short series of observations. There 

 remains, as we see, much to be done in this field, and it would 

 well repay a lepidopterist to undertake some exact observations 

 upon the length of life in different butterflies and moths, with 



