LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 49 



August of the next, i.e., some 14 months, and then remains as a pupa 

 from August to June, i.e., some 10 months, is, in nature, usually much 

 larger and more intensely coloured than the typical form that goes 

 through all its changes in a year. Bearing on this, Standfuss says 

 (Handbuch, &c, p. 57): " L. quercus of the north German lowlands 

 expands, $ 55mm. — 57mm., $ 67mm. — 70mm.; in the mountains 

 of central Germany — Hartz, Bohmer-Wald, Riesengebirge, &c. — it 

 becomes the larger var. callunae, Palmer, $ 59mm. — 62mm., 2 

 73mm. — 75mm., whilst the Lapland examples reach, $ 63mm. — 

 65mm., $ 77mm. — 86mm. The lowland examples spend only one 

 year from egg to imago, the mountain form takes two, whilst in 

 the northern latitudes three are taken." (Standfuss parallels this 

 with Sterrhopterix hirsutella which takes two, and 6". standfitssi 

 which takes three years, the latter being the larger.) " In the 

 lower mountains of the Riesengebirge, between Bolkenheim and 

 Hirschberg, one finds examples with one- or two-year cycles side 

 by side. Parallel with this, one may mention that, at Fiirstenstein, 

 in Silesia, also, the markedly different forms Selenephera lunigera 

 (with hybernating larva) and *b\ htnigera var. lobulina (with hybernat- 

 ing pupa) occur side by side, although the specific identity of the 

 latter is less certain than that of the former since the larva of 6". 

 lobulina var. lunigera also shows certain differences." British specimens 

 of var. callunae are often larger than the extreme measurements given 

 by Standfuss, and Morton notes (in litt.) larvae from Arran that 

 fed up on birch, and produced male specimens averaging 69mm., 

 and females 82mm. ; these show the discal white spot with a tendency 

 to become diamond-shaped or triangular, and the males have very 

 distinct yellowish epaulettes. He also states that a 2 L. var. callunae 

 in Mrs. Fraser's collection measures 84mm., and further notes that 

 the largest $ from Glen Lochay is 63-5111111., and the largest ? 

 from Rannoch 78*5mm. Butterfield observes that a brood fed on dry 

 oak -leaves produced some remarkable specimens, small, dark, and 

 many crippled. We have already stated that whilst our typical 

 south British L. quercus goes through its metamorphoses in 12 

 months, the var. callunae takes normally two years, yet occasionally 

 it happens that larvae of both forms will feed up quickly if the 

 temperature be suitable, pupate, and emerge in winter or early 

 spring. Standfuss considers this to depend upon the eggs being 

 subjected to a high temperature whilst the embryo is undergoing 

 development, and states that he has proved this to be the case 

 with hasiocampa quercus and Laria l-nigrum, these insects going through 

 to the imaginal stage without any hybernation either as larva or pupa. 

 The following notes written mainly by Continental lepidopterists are not 

 without interest. Hormuzaki says ( Verh. z.-b. Ges. Wien, 1895, p. 

 252): "The specimens from Czernowitz do not appear to differ at all 

 from the ordinary German form ; a single S , however, from the alpine 

 region of the Suhard mountains (over 1700m.) belongs probably 

 to a local form, being larger, much darker (coffee-brown colour), 

 with broad bands, &c. This specimen, according to Caradja {Iris, 

 viii., pp. 91 — 92), agrees with two from the Carpathians, and falls 

 midway between var. alpina, Fr. and var. roboris, Schrk." Caradja 

 notes {loc. cit.) that the species is very scarce in the plains and 

 lower slopes of the Carpathians, but is much commoner above the 



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