s ^ V 



C|e fcabian ^ntûmûlogisi 



YoL. I. TOEONTO, FEBEUAEY 16, 1869. No. 7. 



, ^ o-ij-ro-w v^ -^o-v A J. 1^5 



ENTOMOLOaiCAL NOTES. 



PAPER NO. III. 



BY W. SAUNDEES, LONDON, Ont. 



Several years ago it occurred to me that a knowledge of tlie earlier stages 

 in the lives of some of our Diurnal Lepidoptera, might possibly be arrived at 

 by obtaining eggs from impregnated females in captivity. My experiments 

 began with the Hesperidae as offering the greatest probability of success. As 

 many females as could be procured (beaten ones preferred as the likelihood 

 of their impregnation was greater) were confined in separate boxes, some 

 with glass tops admitting light, others darkened. My success was greater 

 than I had anticipated, but none attended the use of boxes where much light 

 was admitted. Whether the failure in the latter case was really due to the 

 admission of light, I am not prepared to say ; the number of glass covered 

 boxes used was not proportionally large nor was their use long continued. 



I obtained eggs from JETesperia wamsutta, mystic, and hdbomoJc, and thus 

 encouraged, the experiments were gradually extended to all the Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera within reach, resulting in success with Papilio turnus, Colias 

 philodic&^ Argynnis myrina, Argynnis hellona, Polyommatus epixanthe, 

 Polyommatus thoe, and Tkecla inorata, Gr. & E. (falacer Boisd. plate). In 

 several instances the eggs were not fertilized, still I regard the results achieved 

 as very encouraging, and feel persuaded that by continued perseverance, all 

 that is wanting to complete the history of our butterflies may in this manner 

 be obtained. 



Papilio turnus. — A beaten female was captured in the beginning of July, 

 1865, and confined in an empty Seidlitz powder box ; on the second or third 

 day of captivity it was observed that the insect had deposited two eggs, and 

 Was still living ; the next morning a third was observed and the butterfly 

 found dead. The eggs were between one twentieth and one twenty-fifth of 

 an inch in diameter, subglobular, flattened at the place of attachment — color 

 dark green, surface smooth, without reticulations, but showing a few small 

 irregularly distributed dots under a magnifying power of forty-five diameters. 



