1886.] MR. A. THOMSON’S REPORT ON THE INSECT-HOUSE. 3 
Nocturni. 
Smerinthus ocellatus. Bombyx quercus. 
popult. * Hemileuca maia. 
tilie. Lasiocampa quercifolia. 
Sphinx ligustri. * Dipthera ludifica. 
Deilephila euphorbic. Endromis versicolor. 
* Hemaris marginalis. Saturnia carpini. 
Euchelia jacobee. Dicranura vinula, 
Callimorpha hera. *Clostera anachoreta. 
Aretia caja. Notodonta ziczac. 
Chelonia villica. Catocala fraxini. 
Liparis chrysorrhea. 
It will be noticed from the preceding list, that the three species of 
European Papilio, viz. :—P. podalirius, P. alewanor, and P. machaon, 
have been exhibited, and that specimens of Pupilio asterias, from 
N. America, were exhibited for the. first time. Together with the 
pupee of this last-named species, I obtained some very small larve 
(hybernating) of Limenitis disippus. They had spun up in small 
leaves, but after being in the warm Insect-House for a few days, 
they came out and commenced to feed very freely upon weeping 
willow ; they grew rapidly and ultimately produced some very fine 
imagos, some of which I have the honour to exhibit this evening. 
I again obtained by exchange some larvee of Aporia hippia, and I 
took the opportunity to get a coloured drawing made of the larve, 
pupa, and imago of this little-known insect, which I now exhibit’. 
Of the American silk-producing Bombyces, Samia ceanothi was 
exhibited for the first time, and I succeeded in obtaining fertile ova 
from one pairing, and in due course the larve ; but I regret to say 
that they all died. Of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th stages, I exhibit 
coloured drawings which Mr. F. W. Frohawk was good enough to 
make from the living larve. The larve in the first stage were 
black, similar to those of Samiu cecropia. 
Although the pure-bred larve died, some hybrids which I 
obtained from a pairing of a male Samia cecropia with a female 
S. ceanothi, throve remarkably well, and there are over 60 cocoons 
now in the Insect-House, from which the insects may be expected 
to emerge early in the coming spring. 
Early in the past season, I purchased about four dozen large pupz 
from South Africa, which had been stripped of whatever cocoon or 
other covering they had possessed, so that it was not possible to 
determine to what species they belonged; it could only be seen 
that they were Bombyces of some kind. As will be seen by the list, 
examples of five species were obtained from them. They were very 
irregular in their appearance, the first emerging on May 7th, and 
the last on September 29th. I obtained a pairing of Gynanisa 
maia, but the larvee, I am sorry to say, died, although one fed, till it 
reached its third stage, on Laburnum. Good specimens of 
Antherea tyrrhea, Fabr., ave, I believe, rather scarce in collections. 
* See Mr. Butler's paper, iv/fra, p. 80. 
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