LIFE-HISTORIES. aOD 



over, and under those circumstances there would seem no advantage in 

 laying the egg on the foodplant, and the hibernaculum selected by the 

 parent would be a safer one. It is stated in some of the books that the 

 egg of D. paphia is laid on the foodplant, and if the tree stem is used 

 for the purpose, it seems strange that, with so common an insect, the 

 habit has not been recorded before. Perhaps it has. — F. Merkifield, 

 F.E.S., 14, Clifton Terrace, Brighton. September 29i/«, 1906. 



Partial second brood of Melampias epiphron.-— Out of a brood of 

 larvae of M. epiphroii, which I am rearing from the egg, I have obtained 

 a partial autumn emergence of this insect. My friend, Mr. George 

 Wilkinson, of Workington, took a pair of M. epiphron, in cop., at 

 Honister Pass, on July 1st, and kindly sent them to me alive. By the 

 time I received them the 5 had already laid a number of eggs on the 

 sides of the chip-box, and afterwards laid more, on blades of grass which 

 I placed with the insect in a glass jar. (Of a few of the latter Mr. 

 Tonge secured a good photograph.) The larvfe were fed throughout on 

 a species of grass growing in the garden. Out of about three dozen 

 larvae, all except four left off feeding when about 3-% of an inch in 

 length ; but these four larvfe steadily fed up, and one, pupating on 

 September 2nd, produced a fine ? on September 11th ; another 

 pupated on September 9th, and a third on September 16th, the fourth 

 larva is now quiescent, preparatory to assuming the pupal state. All 

 the larvae received the same treatment, and were kept in an outhouse. 

 I do not know if the occurrence of a second brood of M. epiphron is so 

 unusual as to give this record any value, but I send this note in case 

 you may think it of sufficient interest to publish. — J. Alderson, 143, 

 Boundaries Eoad, Balham, S.W. September 17th, 1906. [The feeding- 

 up of larvae of Melampias epiphron in the autumn is probably quite 

 unprecedented. As a matter of fact there is no really well authenti- 

 cated instance of any species of Erebiid being double- brooded, or 

 partially double-brooded, in nature, and one does not expect to find 

 even odd examples of any Erebiid species feeding-up so as to complete 

 its metamorphoses in the autumn. One would have supposed that the 

 artificial conditions of being indoors would have been altogether in- 

 sufficient to have caused this change in so fixed a habit, and one is 

 astonished to find M. epiphron, even in small numbers, not resisting 

 any tendency such artificial conditions might have to push the larva9 

 forward. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Alderson for the chance of 

 getting photographs of the l&vvse and pupae of this insect for our work 

 A Natural History of British Butterflies. — -Ed.] 



Phryxus livornica larva. — The following note embodies the 

 description of a larva of P. livornica, found July 20th, 1906, in 

 a sunny garden at Lewes, at rest on a stem of garden mint, preparing 

 for changing to its (last ?) larval skin : — Plenty of vine, Ampelopsis 

 veitchii, etc., in the garden. Length l|ins. in repose. Head small, 

 black. Subspiracular and subdorsal lines bright yellow. Body 

 blackish-grey ; between the subdorsal and subspiracular lines profusely 

 dotted with dull pale yellow ; the subspiracular yellow line has 

 a tendency to spread on each segment, and on all the abdominal 

 segments has a velvety-black spot above and below this enlargement, 

 the upper one much the darker. Horn (caudal) rough, covered with 

 small sharp spines, and rather blunt, orange at the base, the rest of it 

 black. — F. Merrifield, F.E.S., 14, Clifton Terrace, Bristol. July 

 21si, 1906. 



