NOTE ON REARING LASIOCAMPA POPULIFOLIA, ESP. 11 



Var. gen. 2. Baeticayia, Scharf., Bechsteiii und Scharfenherri^A Nat. Schridl. 



Forstins., ii., p. G38, excl. cit. (1805)=? crepuscularia, Hw.(1809) nee, Hb. 



= consonaria, Stph. (1829) nee. Iih.= strigularia, Stph. (1829). 

 ? Ab. defessaria, Pit., 510. 1 (1847) ; Garbowski, SB. K. Ak. Wiss. Math. Nat. 



CI., ci., 1, p. 986 (1892). Unicolorous grey or grey-brown, with whitish 



subterminal. 

 k\). jyassetii, Mieg (1886). Blackish brown. 

 No. 2. Ckepusculaeia, Hb., 158 {ITdQ) = Uundularia, Esp. 2»'o parte (cir. 1797) 



==laricaria, Buckl., Larv. Brit. Moths, vii., p. .37 (1897), nee., Dbld. 

 ? Ab. defessaria, Frr., 510. 1. (1847). Unicolorous grey with whitish sub- 

 terminal. 

 Ab. delameremU, White {1877) = schillei, Klem. (1893). Smoky blackish. 

 Ab. nifira, Mieg. (1886). Black, with wlaite subterminal. 

 ?Yi\:V. incertata, Stgr., Iris, x., p. 59 (1897). Grey-white, blackish markings 



more prominent than in type. AmurlancI (Vladivostok, Bikin), end of 



May. 

 ?Var. gen. 2. lutamcntaria, Graes., Bcrl. Ent. Zeit., xxxii., p. 401 (1888). 



Smaller than type, same yellow-white ground colour, mostly weaker 



marked. Amurland (Isle of Askold, Sutschan, Vladivostok), cir. 27th 



July-7th August. 



Note on Rearing Lasiocampa populifolia, Esp. 



By L. J. LAMBILLION, Vice-President of the Ent. Soc. of Namur. 



On July 23rd, 1898, a female Lcmocampa populifolia was brought 

 to me. This had been picked up in a gutter in the town. I was very 

 pleased, as it promised a chance of rearing the insect should I obtain 

 fertile eggs, and I placed it on a sheet of white paper, in a box used 

 for this purpose, and I aAvaited events, i.e., eggs. Tavo days later 42 

 were laid, and I knew that part of the eggs had been previously laid, 

 and those I had were fertile, for the females of this species usually lay 

 a considerable batch. I at once sent a dozen eggs to M. I'AblDe de 

 Joannis, in France, asking him for advice as to rearing the larvfe, for 

 I knew that he had successfully bred the species in England some 

 years before. On August 3rd, eleven days after tbe eggs Avere laid, the 

 larvfe hatched, and I had 26. In its first instar the larva much 

 resembles that of L. (pwrci folia. Like that, it is of a broAA^n (almost 

 black) colour, but one recognises it readily by the Avhite spot on the 

 3rd segment, AA'^hich, hoAA^ever, one only sees Avhen the larA'a moA'es. 

 All entomologists are agreed that this is a difficult species to rear ; 

 eA-erything goes Avell until Avinter, but then, as soon as the larva 

 ceases to feed, it dries up, commencing from the anus, and one some- 

 times sees larA'fe with the posterior half of the body quite dead Avhilst 

 the anterior part may live for some Aveeks. When one is able to pro- 

 cure eggs in .June the larvte are usually fullfed by the middle of 

 August, and the imagines emerge at the end of the same month 

 or in September, and one obtains the summer form, AA'hich is 

 much smaller than the type, but one rarely gets this chance. Usually 

 the larvae hybernate very small. The chance occurred once at Saint- 

 Servais, to M. Castin, Avho obtained a batch of eggs from a June $ 

 one year AA^hen the spring was very AA^arm, Avhen from a hundred larA'se 

 more than sixty pupated at the commencement of August, the 

 imagines emerging at the end of the same month, AAdiilst the re- 

 mainder of the larvffi fed up sloAAdy, btit did not surviA^e the Avinter. 

 The result, therefore, AA^as an excellent one, for this summer form is 

 very rare, and much Avanted by amateurs. 



