﻿264 [Apn 



colouring, with the dorsal line only just indicated at the segmental divisions : the 

 sub-dorsal region forms the upper boundary of a very broad stripe of paler freckling , 

 followed by a much narrower and still paler one, and then a broad one of similar 

 depth of colour to the back, but with more of a violet hue : the rest may be de- 

 scribed in the same terms usad for similar parts of the larva of cerago. — Id. 



Note on Anthrocera filipendulce. — From larvaa of this species collected during 

 last July at Branscombe, which is situated between Seaton and Sidmouth, I bred 

 the perfect insects in August ; and, as the under-cliffs at Branscombe are very much 

 exposed to the sun's rays (being famed for the production of the earliest crops of 

 potatoes in the West of England), I am half inclined to call this a second brood, 

 induced by looally exceptional heat : of course I do not venture to speak at all 

 decidedly on such slender evidence ; only, having heard a similar opinion expressed 

 once or twice before, I now put it forth to invite criticism on it. — J. Hellins, 

 Exeter, March, 1870. 



Remarks on the habits of Liparis salicis. — Mr. G. T. Porritt, of Huddersfield, 

 has kindly communicated to me the result of his experience in breeding Liparis 

 salicis, which by no means agrees with the statement of Von Prittwitz and Rossler 

 that this species hybernates in the egg. Mr. Porritt has always found that the eggs 

 are laid in July or August, that the larvaa are hatched in about three weeks, and 

 then feed and grow very slowly indeed until the approach of winter, when each 

 spins for itself a small white cocoon, in which it spends the whole of the wintei', 

 coming forth and re-commencing to feed as soon as the willows and the poplars come 

 into leaf in the spring. This, at least, is the habit of the species in the north of 

 England, and it may be only a proof of the inveterate insularity of the British 

 (moth) refusing to adopt continental ways ; but Mr. Porritt suggests, that the fact 

 of the parent moth covering its eggs thickly with a crystal-looking substance rnay 

 have led to the supposition that they were intended to be thus protected through 

 the winter ; and this supposition may have been strengthened by the discovery of 

 the young larvse in the spring still so very small, that they might be thought to 

 have been lately hatched. 



Can any one help us to settle the why and wherefore of this difference between 

 the Continental and English observers in their accounts of Liparis salicis ? 



Mr. Porritt also mentions (as exceptional facts) that he once had a brood of 

 Polia chi, which were hatched two or three weeks after the eggs were laid : and 

 that on another occasion he bred Orgyia antiqua from eggs deposited in the previous 

 part of the same season. — Id. 



*#* Von Prittwitz remarks that L. salicis occurs in Silesia in immense swarms ; 

 referring also to a recorded observation of Zeller's of its having occurred as late as 

 October. 



Katzeburg (Porst-Insekten) says that ordinarily the eggs do not hatch till 

 spring, but that some occasionally do so in the autumn. 



Boisduval relates that " the little caterpillars emerge from the egg at the end 

 " of April. The eggs are covered by a shining white plaster, which may be trivially 

 " compared with spittle. In localities where the species is common, it is possible 

 " to greatly diminish its numbers by picking off these shining masses, each of which 

 " enclosea an almost entire brood." 



