506 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



or less mixed with light grey, similar to those that Graeser bred 

 from Chabarowka. He adds that he has similar grey males from 

 other localities — two from Irkutsk, two from Ural, and two from 

 Hungary — the last" even more strikingly grey than the Amur 

 specimens. A male from Laplandf has the same dark grey colour, 

 but not more light grey dusting on the outer border of the forewings 

 than have typical specimens. The ? belonging to the males from Ural 

 and Hungary, are little (if any) different from the normal form. He 

 further notes tbat he has also "a quite typical specimen from the Amur 

 district, so that senecta cannot be indicated as a local form for the 

 entire Amurland district and probably only occurs in certain localities. 

 This grey form also occurs in Siberia, and the whole of south-eastern 

 Europe. Many of my specimens, probably from Hungary, are inter- 

 mediate between the extreme grey form and the type." 



Egg-laying. * — The eggs are laid in large batches, round a twig in a 

 long, close spiral, but placed regularly upon each other. They are thickly 

 covered with a coating of dove-grey silk, the silk not only covering 

 the eggs, but extending beyond them for some distance along the twig. 

 The eggs are slightly attached to the twig by the point opposite 

 the micropyle, the latter being at the free end, so that it appears as if 

 the egg is really an "upright egg," i.e., with the micropyle opposite 

 the point of attachment, a form very unusual, not only among the 

 Lachneids, but throughout the whole Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps. 

 The fact is, the eggs are laid in true Lachneid fashion, especially the first 

 ring, in which they are moderately horizontal in position, and must be 

 considered as being laid upon each other, rather than attached to the 

 twig round which they are placed. The silk covering the eggs appears 

 to be of two different tints, white and black, hence its grey appearance 

 in bulk. It is composed of short, wavy, fibrous masses. Newman 

 says that some batches of eggs exhibit a corkscrew form, in others the 

 rings are fused together, and the mass becomes amorphous. Lambillion 

 notes the eggs as being laid from February 20th-March 10th (dependent 

 on the weather) on young shoots of sloe in the Namur district. The 

 eggs are reported by Perkins not to hatch simultaneously, but to continue 

 to do so throughout May and June. Bower found a batch of ova laid 

 on a birch branch in Bexley Woods on April 8th, 1871. Eggs hatched 

 May 11th, 1890, at Mortimer (Holland), May 16th, 1890, and 

 following days (Adkin). 



* Evidently this is ab. grisea (= ab. borealis, Carad., in part) (see supra). 

 f Certainly referable to var. aarasaksae, Teich (anted,, p. 505). 



* Eeaumur wrote in 1736 (Mem., ii., p. 107): "Les oeufs etoient arranges en 

 spirale, autour d'une petite branche d'epine, comnie ceux des bracelets, et enehasses 

 aussi dans une couche de gomme qui enveloppoit immediateiiient la petite branche. 

 Le ncm pourtant de bracelet ne convenoit pas a leur assemblage, parce qu'il 

 occupoit une tres-longue etendue de la branche ; d'ailleurs ces oeufs n'etoient 

 visibles que quand on avoit enleve les poils qui les cachoient. Ces poils etoient 

 extremement fins, d'une tres-jolie couleur de gris de fouris ; ils n'etoient point 

 couches, comme le sont ceux des autres nids que nous avons decrits ; ils etoient 

 droits et comme flottans, quoiqu'ils fussent tres-proches les uns des autres. Ils 

 imitoient ce fin duvet dont est garni le corps de certains oiseaux, ou les poils fins 

 qui se trouvent sur le castor et sur d'autres quadrupedes audessous des longs poils. 

 Au reste, l'arrangement des poils, celui des ceufs, celui meme de la gomme dans 

 laquelle sont enehasses les ceufs des bracelets, n'ont plus rien qui doive nous 

 paroitre difficile a executer par un papillon, des que nous scavons qu'il a un 

 derrierc qui peut faire tout ce que feroit, en pareil cas, une main adroite." 



