﻿March, 1870.] 22 1 



A LIST OF BRITISH MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA WHICH HYBERNATE IN 

 THE EGG STATE. 



BY THE BEY. J. HELLINS, M.A. 



Since the publication of my note on the hybernating ovum at 

 p. 166 of this vol., I have collected some information which may be of 

 interest. 



Perhaps I ought to say, that the question I put in my former note 

 had been previously started in the course of a correspondence between 

 Dr. A. Wallace and Dr. T. A. Chapman. The former had satisfactorily 

 established the fact that the larva of Bombyx Yama-Mai is perfected 

 within the egg shell a month after deposition, and therein hybernates, 

 not emerging till spring ; and he was anxious to know if this were the 

 case generally with those species which pass the winter in the egg. 

 Had I thought of this question some years ago, I might have made 

 better use of opportunities, which have presented themselves from time 

 to time, and then I could have given dates for a great many species ; 

 however, my deficiences have been made up by friends, and so, from my 

 note books reaching back to 1857, and by the kind help of Dr. T. A. 

 Chapman, Eevs. Bernard Smith and H. Harpur Crewe, and Messrs. 

 C. Gr. Barrett, W. Buckler, T. J. Carrington, A. H. Jones, W. Machin, 

 and J . Traill, I have got together what follows. 



During this winter, eggs of Bombyx mori, Trichiura cratcegi, 

 Ennomos tiliaria and angularia, Cheimatobia brumata and boreata, 

 Scotosia vetulata, Btilophora plumigera, JLanthia aurago and Folia chi 

 have been examined from time to time up to the middle of January ; 

 and so far — with one exception only — nothing but the faintest traces 

 of the future larvae have been detected by microscopic examination of 

 their still fluid contents. At the last examination — about January 14th 

 — the larva of X. aurago was found partially developed, but not to such 

 a degree that it could be extracted from the shell in the larval form. 

 So far, therefore, the guess formed by Dr. Chapman and myself, that, 

 as a general rule, the larva is not developed till after hybernation, has 

 been confirmed. Still there are many more species to be examined, far 

 more indeed than I imagined till I set myself to make the list of 

 them, which I now give in two divisions ; the first containing those 

 species, the dates for the deposition of the egg and the hatching of the 

 larva of which can be vouched for either by myself, or by one or more of 

 my above-mentioned correspondents ; and the second giving the species, 

 about which we have no positive information, but which we believe to 

 have the same habit. I think it probable that the names of some 

 others ought to be added. 



