14 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



S. anclreniformis. — Series of 11 with full data, all from Kent. 

 Three from the Meldola Collection, 8 presented by B. G. Adams, 

 Esq. 



Hepialid^e. 



Hepialus liumuli. — Included in the series are over 70 speci- 

 mens of var. hetldandica. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES ON VANESSID LA RATE. 



By Paymaster-in-Chief Gervase F. Mathew, B.N., 

 F.L.S., F.E.S. 



In the * Entomologist ' for 1864-5, vol. ii, p. 132, Mr. J. R. S. 

 Clifford surmises that the larva? of V. urticce and of the genus 

 Vanessa in general are remarkably exempt from the attacks of 

 ichneumons. This is not quite my experience, for since I began 

 collecting — as long ago as 1855 — I must have fed up many 

 hundreds of larvae of Urticce, lo and polycldoros, and I generally 

 found that they were more or less infected with parasites. In 

 two instances I remember having had large broods of the larva? 

 of polychloros, and only bred a single butterfly from each lot. 



This year, on June 10th, I found a nest of very young 

 larva? of V. urticce. They were spun up among the terminal 

 leaves of a couple of stems of nettle, growing side by side, and 

 almost touching, and appeared to be divided into two little 

 family parties, one of which contained twice as many larva? as 

 the other. I took the largest lot, which comprised, as far as I 

 could guess, from 150 to 200 larva?, and left the other. I 

 judged from their size they were about two days old. I had 

 read somewhere that if the larva? are taken very young they are 

 seldom found to be ichneumoned, and I thought this would.be a 

 good opportunity of testing the truth of the statement. 



On reaching home I put the larva?, in their little nest, under 

 a large glass cylinder, with some nettles pulled up by the roots 

 and plunged into a wide-mouthed bottle beneath it. The larva? 

 grew fast, and in a few days had reduced the leaves near their 

 nest to mere skeletons. By June 20th they were more than half 

 grown, and were in a very healthy-looking condition. On this day 

 I went to the place where I found them on the 10th of the month, 

 to see how those I had left behind were getting on. They appeared 

 to be a trifle larger than those I had at home, had quitted their 

 nest and were scattered about the plant. I took all I could 

 find — just 50 — and when I got home they were placed under a 

 separate cylinder. By June 25th they were in their last skins, 

 and were consuming a large quantity of food. In the first 

 cylinder (the one that contained the first lot of larva?) they were 



