LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 87 



olive-green colour of the band is so apparent that it can be detected 

 when the insect is on the wing. The example figured in Entom., 

 xxxiii., pi. iii., fig. 8, is stated to have been bred by Purbrook of 

 Brighton, its locality not being mentioned. It is described as having 

 the pale median band of a light greenish-olive, which gradually 

 blends into the marone or purplish-brown margin, the underside 

 being similarly coloured to the upper, but somewhat paler. 



7r. ab. olivacea, n. ab. — The whole of the wings suffused with greenish, and 

 not merely the transverse bands so tinted as is the case with ab. olivaceo -fas data. 

 This form is even rarer than the last-named. 



p. ab. fenestrates. Gerhard, " Berl. Ent. Zeits.," xxvi., p. 128 (1882); 

 Kirby, "Cat.," p. 828 (1892). Fenestrata, Auriv., "Iris," vii., p. 150 (1894). — 

 An interesting form, frequently bred from hybernated pupae. The yellow band 

 beyond the middle is, on both fore- and hindwings. as also in both sexes, rubbed- 

 looking, and the whole surface appears transparent (Gerhard). " ? Leipzig." 



These more or less scaleless specimens, which are often distinctly 

 transparent, are frequently bred, and are probably the result of bad 

 nutrition in the larval stage. Porritt notes that Varley used to 

 breed a form having transparent wings from larvae found in the 

 Huddersfield district, and many such bred examples are on record 

 in our various magazines, generally occurring unexpectedly and 

 usually with a number of quite normal examples. Some of these 

 have already been noted (anted, pp. 53 — 54 and p. 81). Staudinger 

 diagnoses ab. fenestratus as : " Ab. al. extus subdiaphanis." 



Egg-laying. — The eggs are laid loosely, our note {anted, vol. 

 ii., p. 436) of eggs being attached, evidently referred to eggs of 

 Macrothylacia rubi, so also, we suspect, does the record of Ship- 

 ston, noted anted, p. 76. The female deposits her eggs with great 

 rapidity, over 100 were extruded in an hour, but the stimulus of 

 flight appears to be necessary for a female to lay all her eggs 

 (Clifford). A captured $ will often lay them freely whilst one holds 

 her in the hand (Tutt). Speaking of var. callunae, Parke notes 

 (Zool., xxi., p. 8647): "From one to two hours after copulation 

 (which extends to about three hours), the $ takes wing, and flies 

 swiftly in circles over the foodplant ( Calluna vulgaris), reminding 

 one of the peculiar oscillating movement of the Hepialidae, and 

 dropping her eggs as she flies. The time thus occupied seldom 

 exceeds from 20 — 40 minutes. The $ then settles down and rarely 

 lives out the day." The eggs of all the forms hatch in late summer and 

 autumn. In Belgium the egg hatches in August, the larva remains 

 small all winter, and lives solitarily (Lambillion) ; eggs from Newton 

 Abbot hatched August 4th, 1898 (Holdaway) ; eggs laid by a $ 

 at Polegate on August 12th, hatched September 2nd, 1898 (Carr) ; 

 the eggs are laid quite loosely ; when extruded the eggs are of a 

 pale drab colour, but a few days before hatching they become 

 wholly brown ; after the larva leaves the egg the shell largely regains its 

 original colouring; eggs laid August 6th, 1886, in S. Devon, hatched 

 August 30th, 1886 (Prideaux); a batch laid August 25th, 1875, 

 gave larvae September 12th, 1875 (Buckler); a $ at Bulmer de- 

 posited in ova on August 10th, 1899, and 3 others next morning; 

 these hatched August 30th, 31st, September 1st and 2nd, some on 

 each day (Ransom). Van Segvelt notes (FeuilL Nat., xii., p. n) 

 the hatching of eggs in the body of a $ , a very remarkable phen- 

 omenon, and one that suggests some error of observation, 



