114 



without changing, and at the end of that time a single yellowish- 

 white dipterous larva, but little smaller than its host, came forth 

 from each, and where possible made for the side of the cage, and 

 having crawled some three or four inches along it, leaving as it did 

 so a slimy trail similar to that left by a slug, either attached itself to 

 the side of the cage or fell to the earth, and within a few minutes 

 had assumed its pupal shape, but remained of the whitish larval 

 colour for some hours, eventually turning to a deep brown. 



Considerable discussion has from time to time taken place as to 

 the food of C. argiolus. The regular stock list given in our butter- 

 fly books is flowers of holly {Ilex), ivy {Hedera), and buckthorn 

 (JRhanmtis) ; to which Wilson, in his " Larvae of the British 

 Lepidoptera," adds blackberry {Rubus), flowers and seeds ; in 

 Buckler's " Larv^ of the British Butterflies and Moths," Escalonia 

 and Cornus sanguinea (dogwood) are also given, while Etionymus 

 europaics (spindle-tree) is mentioned by Harvvood. The question has 

 also been discussed on more than one occasion in these rooms, Mr. 

 Oldham ("Proc." 1886, p. 53) some little time since showing us a sprig 

 of holly with ova attached, and in July of last year Mr. Dennis assured 

 us that a brood that he had just reared fed indiscriminately on holly 

 leaves and flowers, and on ivy leaves. 



But it may be interesting to see how some of the above-mentioned 

 food-plants have come to be recorded. Holly and ivy are both 

 established upon endless observation for the first and second broods 

 respectively, the only question regarding them being whether the 

 leaves as well as the flower-buds form a natural food for the species. 

 Such recorded evidence as I have been able to collect on this 

 particular point is as follows. Mr. T. P. Lucas watched a female 

 depositing ova on the flower-buds of holly in a garden near the 

 Vauxhall Bridge Road at the end of April, 1874 (" Entom.," vol. vii, 

 p. 292). Mr. Buckler had a few eggs laid by a captured female on 

 the footstalks of flowers of holly, in the spring of 1862 ; the larvae fed 

 first on the flower-buds, and afterwards on the young green berries. 

 In August he received ova from Mr. Bisshopp, laid just beneath the 

 flower-heads of an umbel of ivy. And in September he found three 

 larvEe on heads of ivy flower-buds, resting on the flower-stalks. The 

 same authority also tells us that of two June larvae beaten from 

 holly, one pupated without feeding, but that he watched the other 

 eat a large piece out of a holly leaf. Also that eggs were laid on 

 holly and young shoots of ivy by a female in captivity in May, that 

 the larvcC resulting were fed on holly (but Avhether leaves or flower- 

 buds is not mentioned) and on ivy (evidently from the time of 

 year on the leaves), and that those on the latter progressed more 

 rapidly than those on the holly (" E.M.M.," vol. xiii, p. 29). Then 

 we have Mr. Dennis's evidence that his spring larvae fed indis- 

 criminately on holly leaves and flowers and ivy leaves. Unfortunately 

 in each case where the leaves were eaten we are left in doubt as to 

 whether the larvse were also supplied with ?i.o^&x-buds ; this, I think, is 



