LACHNEIS LANESTEIS. 515 



Gascoyne records that on the morning of March 18th, 1860, he placed 

 a box containing 300 pupae on a chimney-piece, that felt warm to the 

 hand ; in three hours 49 males and 4 females emerged ; moved the 

 box back to cooler place in the evening ; next morning no more had 

 emerged, so moved box again to chimney-piece ; in less than two hours 

 25 others, 14 males and 11 females, emerged. The power of existing 

 for several years as pupa, and then successfully emerging, is perhaps 

 more marked in this, than any other known species of lepidoptera. 

 Thornewill, however, says that he can get the moths to emerge without 

 trouble by putting the cage with the cocoons into the sun early in March, 

 when they will swarm out like flies. He states that he once bred 

 fifteen in half an hour. Miss Kimber says that the imagines usually 

 emerge from 12.0-1.30 p.m. Hewett gives 4 p.m. Eussell states that 

 he placed the cocoons resulting from a large brood of 200 larvae [antea, 

 p. 508) on moss, kept them in an unheated, well-aired room through- 

 out the autumn and winter, occasionally damping them, and obtained : 

 April 1st, 1899—14 3 s, 9 ?s; April 4th— 15 <? s, 27 2 ; April 6th 

 — 7 3 s, 4 ? s ; April 7th— 11 3 s, 9 ? s ; April 10th— 8 3 s, 15 ? s ; 

 April 11th — 3 3 s, 8 ? s. The imagines commenced to appear at 9 a.m., 

 and continued to do so until 6 p.m., the majority emerging in the late 

 afternoon. Of the 58 3 s and 72 $ s which emerged 2 3 s and 4 ? s 

 only were crippled, but the hind wings of 5 per cent, of the 3 s and 20 

 per cent, of the ? s were imperfectly formed. There are still remain- 

 ing about 30 of the single and half a dozen of the composite cocoons, 

 with pupae, those of the former possibly going over to emerge another 

 year, but it is doubtful whether the latter will do so. Woodforde 

 states that he has obtained large numbers of emergences towards the 

 end of Jauuary, after the pupae had lain over two winters, by putting 

 the box in which they were kept, with a glass over it, in the window 

 in bright sunshine. The temperature in the box would then be 

 between 90° F. and 100° F., and under these conditions they will 

 emerge and buzz about like bees. Hoffmann (of Thurnau), in 1799 

 (Naturforscher, xxviii., pp. 87 et seq.), gave an account of his breed- 

 ing L. lanestris, from a nest of 265 larvae obtained June 18th, 1793. 

 Of these he selected 125, and fed them on apricot leaves ; before 

 maturity 47 died, and the remainder spun up July 10th-14th. From 

 February lst-15th, 1794, 20 3 s and 29 ? s emerged, and of these 83 s 

 and 14 5 s were crippled ; in the first thirteen days all the males, but 

 only a few females emerged, in the last two days the remainder of the 

 females ; after this, none appeared until November 12th when one 2 , a 

 cripple, emerged. In 1795, on March 1st, 3 3 s (one a cripple), and on 

 March 12th, 1 ? emerged. In 1796, about the same time of year, a 

 few more emerged. In 1797, on February 14th and February 25th, 

 two males emerged ; later in the same year he opened nearly all the 

 remaining 21 cocoons; the greater part of the pupae were dead, and 

 dried up, some, however, were still healthy, and, on February 15th, 

 1798, 2 3 s emerged, on February 27th, 2 3 s, on March 3rd, 1 5 , the 

 last three cripples, but very active. Two healthy pupae were still going 

 over. From pupae received by us, in 1880, one emerged in 1881, 

 another in 1882, two in 1883, and the remaining pupa opened in March, 

 1884, was found to contain a fully formed imago, which expanded its 

 wings after being carefully removed from the pupa. Kobson says that 

 imagines from one b^ood he had, came out during four or five successive 



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