514 BBITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



appears to be an occasional habit for a preponderance of one sex to 

 emerge from particular broods, but this may be due to the conditions 

 of rearing them in confinement, the larvae of one sex being killed off, 

 yet this is not always so, for W. E. Nicholson records that, in a brood 

 he once had, all the specimens that emerged one year were males, whilst 

 those which emerged next year were females, and Wilson observes 

 that of sixteen pupae, he bred five females one year, all the rest going 

 over. Standfuss gives (Handbuch, &c, p. 190) details of four years' 

 results in breeding the species, in which the proportion of the sexes 

 worked out as follows : 1889—89 $ s, 81 ? s; 1890—212 3 s, 198 ? s; 

 1891—128 $ s, 119 ? s ; 1892— 157 $ s, 152 ? s, i.e., a total of 586 $ s 

 compared with 550 ? s. The insect is in some years exceptionally abundant. 

 Walker notes twenty nests in a mile by the roadsides at Pickering, in 1896 

 but states that, in spite of the abundance, the larvae do no permanent 

 damage. Harwood records thousands of larvae in 1867, in the 

 Colchester district. Barrett says that it is most plentiful in coast 

 districts, but this is more than doubtful. Still records it from the 

 moors in Devonshire, and Wylie on the heaths of Perthshire. Holland 

 says the larvae are locally common on hedges in Berks and Oxon, 

 Vaughan in lanes in Essex, Christy on exposed parts of the downs at 

 Emsworth. Bower observed it on rough ground near the sea at East- 

 bourne, Prout on hedges on marshy ground at Benneet, and Chaney 

 says that it is not uncommon in the woods at Chattenden. Very 

 abundant in 1868, at Badyworth, in Somerset, one web was found on 

 the top of a dwarf hawthorn hedge containing about 60 almost full-fed 

 larvae. At the bottom of the web was about a quart of frass. Most of the 

 imagines from these emerged the following February, a very few went over 

 until the next year (T. Briggs). Very irregular in appearance, sometimes 

 20 or 30 nests in the hedges round Hertford in one season (Stephens) ; 

 on whitethorn hedges at Cambridge and Leamington, on blackthorn at 

 Windermere, in woods on sallow, at Whitwell and Aylsham (Freeman); 

 common on the exposed hawthorn hedges leading to the downs at 

 Salisbury (Ridley) ; common near Bath, the larval nests conspicuous, 

 and not unlike a wasp's nest at a distance (Greer) ; abundant on the 

 hedgerows of whitethorn and blackthorn at Pickering, in July, 1897, 

 there were nests almost every few yards along the roadsides (Ash) ; 

 found on the hedges and commons in the Weald of Sussex (Nicholson) ; 

 common on hawthorn hedges in Worcestershire (Rea) ; everywhere on 

 hawthorn hedges in the Brighton district (Merrifield) ; on roadside 

 hawthorn hedges at Aylesbury (Bayne) ; on a blackthorn hedge in the 

 New Forest, June, 1897, we found a tough web about a quarter of a 

 yard long, thick, white, and almost pear-shaped, with I should think 

 hundreds of larvae inside, the imagines emerged the following February 

 (Cowl) ; prefers the cliff slopes between Southend and Benfleet, not so 

 common inland (Whittle); larvae very abundant on the stunted black- 

 thorn bushes growing on the Magilligan sandhills in the Londonderry 

 district (Campbell) ; very common in the larval stage on hawthorn 

 hedges at Uriage, the larva full-fed at the end of June (Oberthiir); egg- 

 batches to be found on twigs of hawthorn, one such April 6th, 1899, at 

 Warnant, on the Meuse (Lambillion) ; larvae abundant on the Stepenitz 

 turf moor nr. Gnageland (Hering). 



Pupal habits — Extended duration of pupal stage. — It is in the 

 pupal stage that the habits of this species are the most remarkable. 



