Entomoloyical Society. 9703 



pany, but as the former is strong on the wing, and the latter rather sluggish for a 

 butterfly, may it not be the case that by the resemblance birds have been deceived into 

 the belief that it is no use to pursue it? Pleniiipus is very common here, Disippus 

 rather rare. 



" I have discovered within the last few days that the larva of this Disippus is 

 remarkable for hyberiiating in the immature larva slate in a case made of a willow-leaf, 

 which it first secures by silken cables to llie twig. The case is made by cutting away 

 most of the terminal portion of the leaf, and then joining the remaining edges together, 

 so that the whole somewhat resembles the leaves of some pitcher-plants (Sarracenia). 

 As a rule, with the exception of Hesperidae, which osculate with Heterocera, the 

 Ehopalocera do not roll up leaves to live in, though Cynthia Cardui makes a rude 

 kind of tent for itself, while the closely-allied Cynthia Huntera, unless my memory 

 deceives me, makes no tent at all. Mr. Lintner, in his paper, Proc. Ent. Soc. Philad. 

 iii. 63, says that he captured Disippus 'early in Mny, appearing as if it had survived 

 the winter.' It must have been larvte that had 'fed up' in the spring that produced 

 his imagos. The second brood comes out late in the summer, after remaining only a 

 week or so in pupa, from larvis which, so far as I have hitherto observed, do not con- 

 struct any cases to live in, seeing that they have no hybernation to go through in that 

 stale. Thus it seems we have a kind of melagenelic habit of leaf-rolling, which 

 appears only in alternate generations. T found altogether 12 — 20 of these larva-cases 

 on Salix hurailis, several containing little larvae, a quarter to half an inch long, 

 several with the larvae close to or on the empty cases, and one with a dead larva in it. 

 Like the very young larv£e of Papilio Turnus and Asterias lliey are brown with a patch 

 of white on the middle of the back, so as to simulate the dung of a small bird ; but 

 specimens which I am breeding have already moulted into nearly the coloration of the 

 full-grown larva. I know of no other butterfly here that hybernates in the larva state, 

 though there are plenty of moths that do so. Pieris Crataegi is said by Godart to do 

 so normally, and Melitaea Dia and Euphrosyne seem to do so occasionally accotding 

 to Vaudoner (Westw. Intr. ii. 355). 



" I notice that you give the Nymphalide genus Protogonius as mimetic, though, 

 probably for lack of room, it is omitted from your Table (Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiii. p. 503). 

 What genus does it imitate? 



" I have been much struck by the statement which you repeat several times, that 

 IthomisB copulate only with specimens coloured almost exactly like themselves. This 

 seems to harmonize well with Mr. Scoti's fact that the red variety of the primrose is 

 perfectly barren with the common primrose; and that the blue and red pimpernels are 

 also barren when intercrossed, according to Gartner, as quoted by Darwin. We have 

 in this locality Colias Philodice and C. Eurytheme, which differ only in coloration (the 

 first sulphur-yellow, the second a fine deep orange) and fly promiscuously together, 

 yet keep perfectly distinct from each other, intermediate grades and intercrosses not 

 occurring, except in a single instance, viz., I once found a pair in copiilA, one sex a 

 true Philodice, and the other with the upper wing only, if I recollect right, coloured as 

 in Eurytheme, the lower wing as in Philodice." 



Mr. Stainton referred to ' The Zoologist,' pp. 7563 — 65, where the history of the 

 hybernation of the larva of the English species, Limenitis Sibylla, in the leaves of the 

 honeysuckle, is given at length by Mr. Newman, from the observations of Dr. Maclean, 

 of Colchester. 



