284 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of hollies, and a number of the larvse wandered off the lilac and 

 ascended the hollies, and there fed and spun their cocoons, eating 

 the fleshy parts and veins of the leaves, and rejecting the hard, 

 almost chitinous edges and spines, exactly as is done by the 

 Geometrid larva, Odontoptera bidentata, when it feeds on holly. 

 Owing to the phenomenal abundance of wasps, there was a goodly 

 number of them eaten by these "yellow stripes." Mr. Schill was, 

 for a time, under the impression that they had been falling and 

 wandering, as there was an increasing diminution of them ; but 

 at last he was lucky enough to catch a wasp seated upon the back 

 of a fine larva, eating its evening meal, for some minutes. Of 

 coui'se they were then taken in, but afterwards the cocoons of those 

 on the hollies were noticed and gathered. I have reared this 

 species on privet, willow, hawthorn, lilac, laburnum, Ailanthus 

 glandidosa (its favourite and natural food), and Ricinus ; now it 

 will also feed on holly. 



Antherea periiyi were also placed upon oak trees, and did well 

 till the blackbirds found them and ate a number of them (none of 

 the larvge were netted over), and they were promptly taken inside 

 and spun up very quickly. Next season they will be netted over. 

 Some of the imagos have appeared (in a good season I have bred 

 two broods), one female having a distinct lobed ocellus on the 

 secondaries, and a brown line running from the costa of primaries 

 to the ocellus (similar to Actias luna). 



Of course I am quite aware that these species have been bred 

 in the open air before, but I think not in the vicissitudes of the 

 Manchester district, where there is so much rain and cold winds. 

 Indeed, had it not been a very exceptional year, they would not 

 have been able to live up to spinning. I lost a number of the 

 selene (from inside) from a disease which I have been unable to 

 make out. The infected larvge did not at all become "peppered," 

 like pebrinous ones, nor did they become diarrhoeous as in 

 flacherie ; larvse apparently healthy in the morning would be 

 found on the floor in the evening, and dead the next morning. I 

 microscopically examined the fluid contents of the bodies of a few 

 of them, and found therein a large number of jointed cane- like 

 filaments connecting and ramifying through a largish micrococcus- 

 like elliptic or nodular body. 



I prepared a culture in Pasteur's fluid, but in my absence it 

 was accidentally overturned, the tube broken; and when I returned 

 there was no chance of obtaining another culture, as the floor had 

 been cleaned up with that greatest of disease preventives, good 

 carbolic soap. I am not acquainted with Muscardine nor its 

 lesions, so it may be this most fell destroyer. 



177, Moss Lane East, Moss Side, Manchester. 



