18S6.] MR. A. Thomson's report on the insect-hoxjse. 3 



Nocturni. 

 Smerinthus ocellatus. Bombifx quercus. 



populi. *IIeinileuca maiu. 



tilice. Lasiocampa quercifolia. 



Sphinx lifjfustri. *Dipthera liidifica. 

 Deilephila euphorbice. Endromis versicolor. 



* Hemaris margiiialis. Satuniia carpini. 

 Euchelia jacobcE(E. Dtcranura vinula. 



Oidlimorpha hera. *Clostera anachoreta. 



Arctia caja. Notodonta ziczac. 

 Chelonia villica. Catocala fraxini. 



Liparis chrysofrhea. 



It will be noticed from the preceding list, that the three species of 

 Europ.aa Papilio, viz. : — P.podalirius, P. alexanor, and P. machaon, 

 have been exhibited, and that specimens of Piqnlio asterias, from 

 N. America, were exhibited for the first time. Together with the 

 pupae of this last-named species, I obtained some very small larvae 

 (hybernating) of Limenitis disippus. Tliey had spun up in small 

 leaves, but after being in the warm Insect-Huuse 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 

 images, some of which I have the honour to exhibit this evening. 



I again obtained by exchange some larvse oi Aporia hippia, and I 

 took the opportunity to get a coloured drawing made of the larvae, 

 pupa, and imago of this little-known insect, which I now exhibit^ 



Of the American silk-producing Bombyces, Snmia ceanothi was 

 exhibited for the first time, and I succeeded in obtaining fertile ova 

 from one pairing, and in due course the larvae ; 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 larvae. The Ir.rvae in the first stage were 

 black, similar to those o{ Samia cecropia. 



Although the pure-bred larvae died, some hybrids which I 

 obtained from a pairing of a male Scania cecropia with a female 

 S. ceanothi, throve remarkably well, and there are over tiO 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 pupae 

 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 larvae, I am sorry to say, died, although one fed, till it 

 reached its third stage, on Laburnum. Good specimens of 

 Anthercea tyrrhea, Fabr., aie, I believe, rather scarce in collections. 



' See Mr. Butler's paper, infra, p. 80. 



1* 



