18S8.] MR. A. Thomson's uepurt on the insect-house. 121 



and perforated interiorly with ten or twelve small boles, and having 

 a larger hole outside. 



" The necessity of this drain is evident, for owing to the aperture at 

 the top, the rain, which falls very heavily here at times, would be apt 

 to fill the cocoon, and thus drown tbe pupa ; therefore the larva con- 

 structs for itself a perfect drain, by which the water runs out as fast 

 as it comes in." 



I forwarded two of these cocoons to Mr. F. Moore, asking if he 

 knew them. Mr. Moore, in his letter to me, replied : — " They are, 

 for a certainty, those of the Moth named Rhodia newara, described by 

 me in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 578, from specimens collected in 

 Nepal by the late General E-amsay, who also gave me a description of 

 the cocoon." 



The pupae of four species of African Papilios were brought to 

 England in September 188G by Mrs. Monteiro. Some of these 

 emerged soon after their arrival, and others continued to emerge up 

 to October 15 of that year; the remainder, viz. 13 Papilio porthaon, 

 5 F. policenes, I P. nireus, and 29 P. morania, passed the winter in 

 the Insect-house, and commenced to emerge again on the 2nd of April 

 last year. The first to appear was Papilio porthaon, followed by 

 P. morania on the 5th and 7th, P. policenes on the 10th, and 

 P. nireus on the 1 1 th. 



I succeeded in getting a pairing of Papilio ajax, but I am sorry to 

 say that the female died without depositing any eggs, although I 

 procured the food-plant {Asimina triloba). 



In consequence of the great heat and continued dry weather 

 experienced last summer, I was not able to rear many larvae, although 

 I had fertile ova of most of the silk-producing Moths. Amongst 

 the iew that I did rear, it may interest entomolgists to know that I 

 reared easily some larvae of Deopeia pulchella upon the common 

 Forget-me-not {Myosotis arvensis), of which there is an abundant 

 supply growing on the banks of the canal. I wrote to Mr. J. C. 

 Warburg in May last, who was at Cannes at the time, asking him if 

 he could send me some living specimens of this insect by post ; this 

 he was good enough to do, and, as I anticipated, a few eggs were laid 

 en route, and a few in the case on arrival. These eggs I collected, 

 and reared about sixteen perfect insects from them, and from these 

 I obtained a second brood, and I have the honour to exhibit specimens 

 of each brood this evening. Two of the larvae were taken by Lord 

 Walsingham (who had not before seen them) to add to the collection 

 which he has presented to the Natural History Museum. 



In August last Mrs. Blake, who had just returned from the Ba- 

 hamas, sent three pupae of a Moth to the Insect-house. Two Moths 

 emerged from these, and proved to be the very beautiful Composia 

 olympia. The larva feeds upon Stephanotis. 



Mrs. Blake was also good enough to send at tiie same time a 

 specimen of a Mygale, of which I do not at present know the specific 

 name. This specimen I regret to say died in December, and I ex- 

 hibit it this evening set in the position which these creatures assume 

 if irritated. 



