Insects. 6997 



locality appears to cause a good deal of variation ; hence probably 

 arises the inaccuracy to be seen in descriptions which come to us 

 stamped with the authority of great names. On the other hand, notes 

 made by detached entomologists on single species sometimes fail in 

 defining what they intend from want of more extended knowledge in 

 the writers, for much of the value of a description depends on its 

 being made with an eye to allied species. For instance, in a great 

 many loopers, one finds the following pattern prevail : — a row of six 

 dorsal markings from fifth to tenth segment (the four middle ones 

 being best defined and coloured, and the first and last more in- 

 distinct), running into continuous parallel lines on the front seg- 

 ments, and contracting into a line, or being repeated with fainter 

 outlines and more stunted proportions, on the hinder segments ; 

 and it is easy to understand how, where the colouring is not very 

 different, a curtailed description of one species may be made to suit 

 two or three others. 



But here I had better stop, and say no more than that I for 

 one should be very glad if any one, competent to do so, would 

 publish a few hints on word-painting as applied to larvae, giving 

 perhaps some headings, under which the different parts of the 

 description might come ; future discoveries might, in that case, 

 be more satisfactorily chronicled than the two or three unfortunate 

 "unknowns" upon whom 1 have "tried my 'prentice hand." 



O.* Smerinthiis Tilice. All the pupae which produced the parent 

 moths were dug at elms, yet the larvae fed up twice as fast on lime as. 

 on elm. What makes the larvae of large species so apt to sicken and 

 die off, apparently without cause ? All three species of Smerinthus, 

 as well as Cerura vinula, have served me in this way, whilst I have 

 reared brood after brood of small things without losing a single 

 larva. 



Ch<Brocampa Elpenor. This year I was introduced for the first 

 time to the green variety of this larva — a much handsomer fellow than 

 his dingy brother. I noticed that a pupa in one of my cages worked 

 itself out of its loose cocoon, and lay quite bare on the moss for six or 

 seven weeks before the appearance of the perfect insect. This can 

 hardly be its habit naturally ? 



Cossus Ugniperda. The following dates seem to confirm the notion 



* O. prefixed to the name of a species indicates that it has hecu hred from 

 the egg. 



