184 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Ehopalocera of Java. — Publication of the first of a series 

 of illustrated monographs on Java butterflies has been recently 

 announced. It treats of the Pieridae, and is by M. C. Piepers and 

 P. C. Snellen, with the collaboration of H. Fruhstorfer. The 

 publisher is Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Holland. 



Notes on the Life-history of Capys Dis.junctus. — Some 

 years ago Mr. A. D. Millar, of Durban, Natal, discovered the 

 above-named butterfly which has, I believe, since been described, 

 although it does not appear in Mr. E. Trimen's book on the 

 ' Butterflies of South Africa.' The egg is laid upon the outside of 

 the pod of the plant Protea hirta. The young larva, which is nearly 

 black in colour, after leaving the egg-shell, immediately bores into 

 the pod, which is then green and soft, feeding and making a tunnel 

 in a downward direction. There is not very much change in the 

 colour of the larva, but as it increases in size it gradually becomes 

 lighter. When full-grown it is about one inch in length, very fat, 

 slug-like in shape, and very much resembles Cossns lignipcrda in 

 colour when about half-grown. Having made a hole for the escape 

 of the imago it changes into a brown pupa inside the pod. Like 

 many of the Lycgenidae, both the larva and pupa are nearly always 

 found accompanied by small brown ants which do not in any way 

 injure either. The Isutterfly emerges about ten to fourteen days 

 after the change to the pupal state. The plant grows upon the sides 

 and tops of hills about one thousand feet above sea-level at Pinetown, 

 Natal, some ten miles from Durban, and I have no doubt at other 

 places as well. Those plants growing near the top of tlie hills are 

 most favoured by the butterfly, and very few larvae were found in the 

 pods near the base of the hills. The pods vary very much in size, 

 and as the larva does not leave the one it first enters to go into 

 another, this accounts for the great difference there is in the size of 

 the perfect insect ; the large pods producing fine large insects, and 

 the small ones just the reverse, in fact, some of the former are 

 double the size of the latter. I never found more than one larva in 

 a pod, and by the time the larva is full-fed the part of the pod it is 

 then feeding upon is as hard almost as any wood. When I first 

 found these larvae I opened several of the pods, took out the larvae 

 which I thought were going to pupate and put them in a chip box 

 to do so. The following day I was very much surprised to find, first 

 that the ants had found them out and got into the chip box (where 

 they came from, I don't know), and secondly, that out of ten larvae 

 only four remained — the other six had bored through the box. The 

 fugitives I found near the top of the wall of the room in which I rear 

 caterpillars, and the ants up there with them. In spite of feeding 

 in pods the larvae are still ichneumoned, and I have bred a good 

 number of these parasitic flies. I found in all about thirty larvae, and 

 in March last reared about twenty-four specimens ; the remainder of 

 the larvae were ichneumoned. — J. F. Leigh, F.E.S ; Durban, Natal, 

 May 1st, 1909. 



Short Duration of Egg-stage of A. ulmata. — On Tuesday, 

 June 15th, I took^l. uhnata plentifully. A female began laying ova 

 in a glass-bottomed box late in the afternoon and during the evening. 



