24 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



according to latitude, as also do Epargyreiis tityrus, Achalarus hjcidas, 

 Thorybes pylades, Hesperia montivaya, Ancyloxipha numitor, Atnblyscirtes 

 vialis, A. samoset, Limochores taumas, Calpodes echlius, etc., in fact, it is 

 possibly a regular habit in the larvae of all those species whose distribu- 

 tion extends from the subtropical conditions of the southern, to the 

 temperate northern, States. The details of the life-histories of these 

 species are, however, very imperfectly known, and, no doubt, many 

 interesting facts will be discovered when the species are carefully 

 reared and their habits watched under fairly natural conditions. Many 

 exotic species appear to be continuously-brooded during the hot season, 

 and only sometimes have a short hybernating period in the cooler 

 season, thus, according to de Niceville (Butts. Sumatra, pp. 520 et seq.), 

 Hidari irava, Erionota thrax, Ganyara thyrsis,Kerona armatus,K. diodes, 

 and many other species, are continuously-brooded without distinct 

 hybernating period. Mathew states (Trans. Ent. Soc. Land., 1888, 

 pp. 179 et seq.) that, at Sydney, there appears to be a succession of 

 broods of Pamphila phineus, from spring to autumn, but, during the 

 winter months, the larvae, which are then small, hybernate between leaves 

 of palms, drawing the edges of the leaves securely together. Similarly 

 he states (p. 186) that there is a succession of broods of Hesperilla picta, 

 at Sydney, from spring to autumn, but that, during the winter months, 

 the small larvae hybernate low down among the stems of their food- 

 plant (Cladium) in loose silken cocoons. 



The larval hybernating-habit has already been touched upon 

 (antea, pp. 10-11). In many species, e.g., Urbicola comma, Adopaea 

 lineola, etc., the fully-grown larva hybernates coiled up inside the egg; 

 in others, e.g., Adopaea fiava, Auyiades sylvanus, etc., the larva goes 

 through hybernation comparatively small, whilst in Cyclopides palaemon 

 and Nisoniades tages it is fullgrown, and only waits for the spring to 

 pupate. On the other hand, the larva of Hesperia malvae is a pure 

 summer-feeder and hybernates as pupa. All these various forms of 

 the hybernating-habit are also to be found in the Nearctic skippers. 

 The larva of the Indian Taractrocera ceramas is fullfed in October, but 

 remains in the larval state until mid-February when pupation takes 

 place. Similarly Scudder observes that all the Nearctic Thanaos larva? 

 known to him do all their eating before the winter, close in their tents 

 with thick silk webbing, remain therein fullfed until the spring, 

 changing to pupae early in the year in their hybernacula. This 

 is, of course, essentially the habit of the larva of Nisoniades tayes. 



The peculiar habit in which many of the "skipper" larva? rest in 

 their tents has been repeatedly noted. It may be roughly said that they 

 prefer to rest on the roof of their tents back downwards, and then turn 

 the head and thorax round — sometimes at right angles to the rest of 

 the body, at others, so that the head almost touches the tail. This is so 

 in our British Hesperia malvae. Davidson, Bell, and Aitken (Journ. Bomb. 

 Nat. J J is. Soc, xi.) note this habit in the species of several genera, e.g., 

 Hesperia (yalba), Caprona {ransonnetix), Saranycsa, Coladenia, etc. The 

 habit has also been noted by Scudder in many Nearctic species, e.g., he 

 remarks (Butts. New Engl.,j). 145 et seq.) that the larva of Thanaos persius 

 prefers to sit with its dorsum downwards, and its head bent at right 

 angles to its body, that the Larva of T.juvenalis rests in the same manner, 

 etc.; he also states (p. 1422) that the larva of Achalarus lycidas rests, after 

 the fashion of so many llesperiine larvee, with the head and tail facing 



