VARIETIES. 87 



largest I had seen during this season — the whole of the males 

 were also large. 



The variety of size in this insect is very remarkable. I 

 have captured males so small as not to exceed 1 inch 4 lines 

 in length up to 2 inches 2 lines ; and females, from 11| lines 

 to 1 inch 8 lines^ including every possible intermediate size. 



They appear to prefer warm and still evenings, after hot 

 days : then they are on the wing between eight and nine in the 

 evening. I have never detected them flying earlier or later : 

 and on cold and windy evenings, they are very rarely met 

 with. 



The fact is thus fully established, that the Lucamis inermis 

 of Marsham is truly the female of Cerviis ; and from the 

 many varieties taken in the same locality, it is also pretty 

 certain that the Cervus, grandis, inermis, and other presumed 

 species are really but one, varying in size, from some cause 

 arising from their condition in the larva state. 



It may not be uninteresting to remark a fact as to the vitality 

 of this insect. I picked up a mutilated male on the 3rd of July, 

 The abdomen was gone. I separated the head from the 

 thorax and elytra, and was astonished to find my finger vio- 

 lently pinched by the mandibles : it continued to hold me 

 tightly, frequently pinching, the antennae also quivering, for a 

 full hour. The following morning it did the same ; and was 

 not wholly without motion twenty-four hours after it had been 

 separated from the thorax : — how long the abdomen had been 

 lost, is uncertain. 



A. H. Davis. 



Nelson-square, Aug. 1, 1832. 



7. Zeuzera jEsculi found impaled on a Thorn. — Sir, 

 I have in my possession a female of the wood - leopard 

 moth (Zeuzera QLsculi) which was found last month trans- 

 fixed on a thorn. It was quite alive ; but, of course, unable 

 to disengage itself, as the thorn completely pierced the thorax 

 transversely and came out on the other side. It was perfect, 

 with the exception of the loss of one of the wings ; the 

 plumage was in tolerably good preservation. It must, I 

 suppose, have been placed there by a butcher-bird (Lanius col- 

 lurio,) which is not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Hamp- 

 stead. If thisj however, were the case, it is singular that it 



