Insects. 7565 



llth and l'2tli segments, and two sliorter ones on the 6tb, 7lb, 8lh, 9th and 10th. 

 About the 10th of June he suspends himself by the tail from the slem of the honey- 

 suckle, and changes to a grolesquely-shaped chrysalis, which hangs head downwards, 

 and seems to have two ears : the wing-cases and front of the head are dark green, the 

 body yellow, and hind part of the thorax brown and curiously humped : viewed side- 

 ways this chrysalis rather resenil)les a very ugly mask, the humps representing a very 

 proraineiit nose and chin. The butterfly is on the wing during July, and flies 

 with such exceeding grace and elegance as to have attracted the notice of all 

 lovers of Nature. We are lidd of an aged enthusiast in Entomology who, after gout 

 or rheumatism had deprived him of the pleasure of pursuit on foot, used to take a post- 

 chaise to Coombe Wood, in Surrey, to watch the flight of this elegant butterfly. A 

 considerable portion of this life-history of Limenitis Sibylla has already been published 

 in my Natural History of British Butterflies, but the wonderful history of its hyber- 

 nation was discovered by Dr. Maclean, of Colchester, and kindly communicated to me 

 by that prince of entomological observers, who also favoured Dr. Bree with the parti- 

 culars, with permission to use them in his work intituled ' Species not Trausmutable.' — 

 JEdward Newman. 



Occurrence of Zygana Achillea in Ireland. — It is a dangerous thing to write about 

 our British Zyga-na; : if any one incline to take up the genus I heartily wish him well 

 through it. It is an equally dangerous thing to introduce a new species on the faith 

 of a single specimen ; but I will risk both these dangers. About a month since Mr. 

 Birchall sent me a single specimen of a Zygasna taken by himself in the West of Ireland. 

 I could not make it out, as it presented a combination of characters which do not 

 exist in any other species. After a while I submitted it to Mr. Doubleday, who pro- 

 nounced no ojiinion, but, with his invariable promptitude and kindness, sent me a 

 pair of continental specimens of Zygana Acbilleae, for the purpose of comparison ; and 

 the new comer proved to be identical with that continental species. It may at once 

 be distinguished from every species yet discovered in this kingdom, save and except 

 Z. Minos, by the extreme bluntiiess and capitate form of the antennae ; and from Z. 

 Minos it is instantly distinguishable by the texture and colour of the covering of the 

 body: in Z. Minos this covering is long, shaggy and dead black ; in Z. Achillea? it is 

 close, compact, shining, and chalybeous-blue. On the Continent this species occurs 

 more particularly on chalky soils, but I am not aware of the existence of chalk 

 in the vicinity ol' its Irish habitat. I forbear describing the colour of the wings, as the 

 species seems subject to much variation in this respect. — Id, 



Description of the Larva of Mtesia bclgiaria. — Rolls itself in a ring, and falls off 

 its food when handled or annoyed, and will remain in this position for an hour with- 

 out moving. Form uniformly cylindrical, with two small warts placed transversely on 

 the back of each segment; a conspicuous conical horn on the 12th segment; and a 

 pair of slender, pointed, closrly approximate horns, pointing backwards, on the 13lh. 

 Colour brown, variegated, mottled and streaked with gray ; on the anterior pair of 

 claspers is a white stripe, and a faint appearance of a similar stripe on the posterior 

 pair. The colour of this larva is very plain and obscure ; the Sphiux-like dorsal horn 

 and the two anal horns ate very distinctive. Feeds on Calluna vulgaris (common 

 ling), on which the egg is laid in June ; it hybtrnates very early in the autumn, and, 

 beginning to feed in April, grows rapidly, and is full fed about the 1st of May, when 

 it spins a slight cocoon on the grouu'l, aud there changes to a pupa, and to a perfect 



