Insects. 8969 
Crowding of Non-gregarious Lave.—I once bred a number of larve of Sphinx 
Populi from the eggs; they quarrelled desperately; they walked over each other 
in the most reckless manner—the one walked over usually contenting himself with 
jerking about and butting the assailant with his head, unless his claspers were inter- 
fered with, when he turned and snapped his jaws most viciously. Occasionally two of 
them got their claspers locked together, and then the fight was furious; but their 
Savage bites did not appear to penetrate the skin, at least in general, for it is different 
at the time of a moult. I had observed that the tails of several had disappeared, 
leaving a black scar; and one evening I noticed the head of a healthy young larva in 
Suspicious proximity to the tail of a much bigger one laid up for moulting; on close 
inspection I found the caudal horn of the invalid much shortened, and the stump of 
it bleeding copiously, and furnishing the cannibal with a plentiful supply of what, I 
Suppose, may fairly be turned “ hawk’s-tail soup.’ How differently these really 
solitary larve behave from those which are gregarious when young, such as Saturnia 
Carpini and Endromis versicolor; these, though separating as they grow older, never 
quarrel when they meet, but crawl over each other without any unpleasantness.— 
F, Beauchamp ; Brighton. 
Hybernation of the Larve of Liparis auriflua.—About the middle of last October, 
while beating a hawthorn hedge, I found to my surprise two larve of Liparis auriflua. 
Not having reared this moth from the egg I could not decide their age precisely, but 
I should imagine they had just passed through the first change of skin. After feeding 
a few days, they both retired to corners of the box in which they were kept; here 
they spun a large cocoon: after remaining motionless for about a week they cast 
their skins, and then formed an inner cocoon of much closer texture, in which they of 
eourse still remain. I was not aware that it was the habit of this larva to hybernate 
occasionally.—John R. S. Clifford; 21, Robert Terrace, King’s Road, Chelsea, 
February 10, 1864. 
{Is this fact new?—Edward Newman.] 
Habits of Young Larve of Endromis versicolor—I do not know whether any 
of your readers have observed that if one or two larve out of a batch of eggs come 
into the world a little later than the rest, or for any reason fall back, they rarely do 
well. One year I had five eggs of Endromis versicolor; the last of the five did not 
associate with the others, and did not seem to grow from his birth; he never took his 
station on the leaf with the rest, but kept wandering about the muslin bag within 
about an inch of them, every now and then crawling close to them, when one of them 
would stretch out and with his head appear to feel the new-comer all over, as if to 
find out whether he was their real brother or not. It was just about the time of the 
final settlement of the Jewish Disabilities Bill, and I could not help being reminded 
of the scene in the House of Commons, the members tendering the oath to Baron 
Rothschild, which he could not conscientiously take. On the third day I pressed the 
muslin bag into such a shape that the birch-leaf touched it, and the poor outcast 
must have come into contact with its edge; but whether he had been exhausted by 
his former wanderings, or felt bullied by his big brothers, and broken-hearted by their 
want of sympathy and pined at being sent to Coventry—or for whatever reason, certain 
it is that he never took up his station among them, and on the following morning was 
found lying on his side, within a quarter of an inch of his hard-hearted relations, stone 
dead.—F’. Beauchamp. 
VOL. XXII. P 
