348 Canadian Record of Science. 



feats, but practically speaking this is what the weak 

 chrysalis has to do. 



After about twelve days in warm weather the butterfly 

 is formed inside, the skin is rent, and the Camberwell 

 Beauty crawls out with diminutive wings, only a quarter 

 of an inch in length, but if you watch it half an hour you 

 will see the wings grow to their natural size, about two or 

 three inches from tip to tip. 



It is not generally known that a butterfly attains its 

 full size in the short space of about one hour. In about 

 two hours it is ready to fly. After the courtship and 

 marriage festivities are over another batch of eggs is laid 

 and the butterflies resulting from these secure a snug 

 retreat and hibernate until spring. 



The enormous increase of these insects is prevented by 

 ichneumons, tiny wasp-like creatures belonging to the 

 Hymenoptera order. 



The special ichneumon which attacks the Camberwell 

 Beauty larva is called Ptermalus Pwparii'm, a small metal- 

 lic green fly ; extreme length of body -^-^ in., wings 

 expanded \ in. It lays about 130 eggs in the mature 

 larva. These hatch and feed inside, avoiding the vital 

 organs ; but the astonishing part is how the larva turns 

 into a chrysalis with 130 ichneumon maggots inside of it, 

 each -^ in. long. I propounded this question to Mr. A. F. 

 Winn, an entomologist of considerable note, and he 

 explained the mystery by informing the writer that the 

 eggs are probably laid while the larva is hung up just 

 before it changes into the chrysalis state; thus it is only 

 incommoded by the ichneumon eggs and not by the large 

 maggots. 



When the caterpillar has undergone all the hard work 

 of changing into a pupa, the ichneumon eggs are probably 

 just hatched, and then commence to eat up everything 

 inside the antiopa chrysalis, leaving nothing except the 

 skin. AVhen full fed the maggots are nearly -^ in. long 



