28 



letzte Rest desselben. Die philoxennB-Gruppe leitet 

 uns dann hinüber zu iophon and von diesem za 

 aristolochiae. 



Was nun die Formen der alcinous-Grnppe be- 

 trifft, bo muss der Name alcinous einer der japa- 

 nischen Generationen bleiben, denn einer japanischen 

 Form ist er (von Klug) gegeben. Später bat Felder*) 

 eine chinesische Form als Pap. mein ins beschrieben. 

 Es isi aber uielit möglich, nach der Felder'schen 

 Beschreibung dahinter zu kommen, welche der bei 

 den mir vorliegenden chinesischen Formen er meint; 

 seine Angaben passen genau auf Beide. Felder schreibt 

 von mencius: 



„er unterscheide! sich nicht nur durch Farbe und 

 Gestalt der Hinterflügelmonde, sondern auch durch 

 die längeren und schmäleren Htlgl. und die an der 

 Basis kaum verjüngten Schwänze." 



Diese Unterschiede , dem japanischen alciuous 

 gegenüber, treffen auf beide, sonst verschiedene chi- 

 nesische Formen zu, sowohl auf Form 2 als auf 

 Form 5. Nun bemerkt Leech wieder**), dass er al- 

 cinous-Stücke aus Süd-Japan besitze, die von men- 

 cius „schwer unterscheidbar* seien, und Elwes***) 

 will gar den Oberthür'schen plutonius mit mencius 

 vereinigen (wenn auch nur mit einem Fragezeichen), 

 wio auch den P. spathatus Butler's. — Mit dem 

 letztern dürfte er sicher recht haben; im Uebrigen 

 möge es hier genügen, die sechs paläarctischen Phar- 

 macophagus kurz charaktersirt zu haben; ihnen allen 

 Namen zu geben, dürfte sich ganz gewiss aus prakti- 

 schen Gründen empfehlen, einerlei, ob sie Saisonformen, 

 Lokalvarietäten oder vicariirende Arten sind.****) 

 (Fortsetzung folgt) 



Note on ßombyx quercus, L. 



by Frank Brumilom. 

 The article by Mr. Eugen Mory, on „Partheno- 

 genesis of B. quercus*, in the „Societas entomo- 

 logica* of April 1" last (1895), suggested by my 

 remarks entitled „Ernergeuce of Sexes in Bombyx 

 quercus, L ," in the same Journal, and puhlished in 

 the issue for February 1" last (1895), was very iu- 

 teresting, and gave food for reflection. 1t did not, 

 indeed, occiir to me, that the Singular pheuomenon 

 of parthenogenesis was to be met with in this species, 



) C. & R. Felder in Wien, ent. Monatsthrift, 18G2, p. 22. 

 ") Proceed. Zoolog. Soc. Lond. 1887, p. 400. 

 ***) Ibid. 1881, p. 872. 



" ) Auf die Nomenclatur soll später, wenn ich den ent- 

 sprechenden Theil von Leech's eben erscheinendem Werke zur 

 Hand habe, nochmals zurückgekommen werden. 



or, J should certainly have kept the 162 eggs laid 

 by my femalo of Bombyx quercus, and have givou 

 them a chance of developing. As it was, 1 conclu- 

 ded, without reflection, that the ova were, as a matter 

 of course, infertile, the female having beon alone 

 all the t i im* from its liirtli, and forthwith throw the 

 out into the garden, where, no doubt, they 

 perished in the great frost of '94— '96, 



Mr. Mory says that males and femalos were never 

 dcvoloped at the same time, tili« coinciding witli my 

 experience of quercus. I montioned iu my uotes, 

 that that larva which was first to pupate (or, to 

 put it in another way, that that chrysalis which was 

 the first to be formed) was not the first to yield 

 an imago, and, in case this isolated instance were 

 not cousidered, in itself, enough to prove the rule, 

 I hasten to adduce furthor, though, I fear, perhaps, 

 inconclusive evidence, in the shape of another in- 

 stance from my own Observation, as recorded in my 

 diary, namely, that of Rhodocera Cleopatra, L. Be- 

 fore 1 left Nice, South of France, I collected a few 

 caterpilars of R. Cleopatra from buckthorn (Rham- 

 nus) behiud our house, which produced eventually 

 three pupae On 29 lh Juno (1894) a female etner- 

 god, but this individual did not result from the 

 chrysalis which was first to be formed ; the first 

 made pupa was found to have failed, on July 2 nd 

 of the same year, the imago being fully formed and 

 ready to come forth, but having decayed, possibly 

 through beiug unable to release itself from the pu- 

 pal shell, this often being caused by a lack of vital- 

 ity, due to the quondam larva from which the chry- 

 salis was constructed, having boen puny, or other- 

 wise defective ; of the third pupa, I have no record, 

 except that it died. I may say that, several years 

 ago, I bred a male Cleopatra from the egg, watch- 

 ing it through all its succeeding stages of Cater- 

 pillar, chrysalis, and imago. 



This is recorded in my „ Butterflies of the Ri- 

 viera." Now, from my two little articles, — in 

 which category I include the preseut paper, — we 

 have two facts, of which I thiuk we may, perhaps, 

 consider the second as practically proved? — viz: 

 (1) that the female of both Rhodocera Cleopatra and 

 Bombyx quercus (all the larvae of the latter insect 

 being takeu withiu a few months of each other, 

 though from different zoues of temperature etc. and 

 from different ancestors and broods), can hatch be- 

 fore the males, and, (2) that the chrysalids (of R. 

 Cleopatra and B. quercus, at least), which are the 



