The Zoologist— January, 1866. & 



the continued rains of August and September, 1864, which must have destroyed 

 myriads of the larvje, and the cold and backward spiiiig of this year. Early in March, 

 1864, the buUerflies began to appear in bouses, produced fiom piipoe which had been 

 suspended on the walls during the previous autumn. On the 6lh of April — a time 

 when the ground is still covered with snow, and the only Lepidoptera to be seen are a 

 very few hybernaling individuals of Grapta Comma or Vanessa Antiopa, lured from 

 their winter retreats to enjoy the sunsliine — several specimens were taken in the open 

 air at Laval, about fifieen miles from Quebec. From that time the butterflies increased 

 in number, and, continuing through the whole summer, might be seen even in October 

 feebly fluttering over the gardens in the outskirts of the city. From the fact of there 

 being no apparent diminution in their numbers during the season I infer that the 

 insect is at least treble-brooded, or that there is a succession of broods, new individuals 

 constantly emerging from the chrysalis to take the places of those that die off. The 

 caterpillars reared by me last year passed through their stages very rapidly. When 

 first taken, on the 8lh of June, they were about a line long ; on the 19th they pupated, 

 and on the 26th of June the perfect insects appeared, making the whole period, almost 

 from the egg to the perfect state, only eighteen days." In confirmation of his previous 

 observation, that " living winter pupae brought into the warm house from the cold out- 

 side invariably shrivelled and died in a few days," the author added, " I have not yet 

 succeeded in procuring a butterfly from a chrysalis gathered on a winter day. It is 

 thus evident that, although the species is increasing in numbers and spreading rapidly 

 over a large extent of country, it is not yet fully acclimated." 



Papers read. 



The Secretary read a communication from Captain J. Mitchell, Superintendent of 

 the Government Museum, Madras, entitled " Kemarks on Captain Button's Paper 

 on the Reversion and Restoration of the Silkworm " (published in the ' Transactions' 

 for 1864). The author disputed the statement, that, in the formation of silk, the two 

 fibres which emerge from the two small orifices in the lip are twisted together by 

 certain hook-like processes in the mouth, and insisted that the two filaments are laid 

 side by side in the cocoon, without twisting, and adhere together until separated by the 

 solution of the gum in the process of manufacture. It was also pointed out that the 

 Tussah silk, from Antheraea Paphia, is flat, and not cylindrical, each filament consisting 

 of a large number of very fine fibres which are extremely difficult to separate ; the 

 finest fibres which the author had obtained from this compound filament measured 

 about the 35-thousandth part of an inch in diameter. The filaments spun by Attacus 

 Atlas and Actias Selene also appeared to be compound. 



Mr. Hewitson communicated " Descriptions of New Hesperidae," consisting of 

 eighteen species of Pyrrhopyga and two of Erycides. 



Mr. Baly read a paper entitled " New Genera and Species of Gallerucidae,'' in 

 which two new genera, Syphaxia and Chorina, and eleven species of Cerotoma (mostly 

 from the Amazons) were described. 



Mr. David Sharp communicated a paper " On the British species of Agathidium," 

 enumerating eleven species, of which three new ones were described under the names 

 of A. clypeatum, A. convexum and A. Rhinoceras. 



The Rev. D. C. Timins communicated some " Notes on collecting European Lepi- 

 doptera." After an exhortation to British Diurnal-Lepidopterists not to confine 



