54 [March, 



WING- EiPANSION IN A BUTTERFLY DELAYED BY LOW 

 TEMPERATURE. 



BY T. A. CHAPMAN, M.D., F.E.S. 



At 2 am. on January I9th, 1894, T found that a Doritis Apollina, 

 whose pupa was in a tumbler on the mantelshelf of a room with a 

 fire, and at a temperature of 73° or 74°, and at times higher, had 

 emerged, and was so energetically searching for a place to settle to 

 expand its wings, that it always left a good spot and got to one where 

 it fell. I, therefore, put it in a muslin cage, and also for reasons of 

 safety took it to a room with a temperature of 51°. 



At 9 a.m. I found it seated quite quietly, but with wings absolutely 

 unexpanded. I then took it back to the warm room, and, five minutes 

 later, found the wings well advanced in development, and it shortly 

 became a perfectly developed specimen. 



I have not met before with so marked an instance of the effect 

 of temperature on wing expansion. Some recorded instances of 

 delayed expansion may be due to this cause. The instances I have 

 myself met with have been chiefly in moths extracted untimely from 

 their pupse, as a result of a belief they had died ; such moths usually 

 fail to expand their wings, but I have known one do so nearly two 

 days after. 



Firbank, Hereford : 



January, 1894. 



MUSCA {CALLIPHORA) VOMITOEIA IN NEW ZEALAND. 

 BT W. W. SMITH. 



In 1889, Mr. G. V. Hudson announced the occurrence of Eristalis 

 tenaoc, Linne, and M. vomitoria, in Wellington, After the announce- 

 ment I resolved to watch carefully for the appearance of these 

 Dipterous in this district. I have already recorded the occurrence 

 and phenomenal increase of E. tenax in the South Island (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., 1890, pp. 240 — 242), and now proceed to record some facts 

 respecting the dispersion of M. vomitoria. On November 8th, 1890, 

 1 captured the first specimen I met with in this district. Observing 

 it entering the tube flowers of Penstemon barbafus, I closed the 

 mouth of the tube and prevented its egress. In two months we had 

 caught three more, and saw another which escaped. In 1891, we 

 had no trouble in capturing several dozen specimens. In each suc- 

 ceeding year, including the present, it has more than doubled its 



