SATURNIA PAVONIA. 317 



on which the eggs are deposited, the whole united solidly by a thick 

 coating of dark gum. A batch thus laid around a heather stem 

 May 17th, 1899, bore a most remarkable resemblance to a little 

 bunch of dried Calluna flowers, a resemblance still more striking 

 when seen among natural surroundings in spite of the dissimilarity of 

 individual eggs to individual blossoms. The eggs of another batch 

 from near Knutsford were similarly laid against each other around a 

 needle of furze forming a compact little mass of about 20 in number ; 

 these were laid by a wild ? , April 22nd, 1899, on the gorse, though 

 there was much heather close by; a batch of 176 eggs (with J) 

 received from Pitcaple, May 8th, 1899, was laid on the inside of a chip- 

 box, upright, i.e., micropylar axis vertical, the eggs placed closely against 

 each other and thickly covered with gum. A few of the outside eggs 

 were flat, some oblique, i.e., partly on end, but so few that one 

 would be inclined to think that the upright must be the normal 

 position, were it not known that this was so. In some places they 

 were arranged in two layers, one on the other, the upper being 

 rather oblique. Chapman writes : " The eggs are laid in patches 

 (in a pillbox) in regular rows, standing side by side on their smaller 

 ends, the tops being rather wider they rather push one another 

 over, and some are on their sides. They are very firmly glued 

 together and to the surface of deposition by a brown gum or varnish 

 which leaves a thick dark ring with a white centre at the point 

 of contact when they are separated. The colour of the egg is 

 therefore whitish and the brown clouding, of differing intensity 

 on different parts of the egg, is due to differences in the thick- 

 ness of the gum, and the surface seen is not the true surface of 

 the egg but that of the gum " (May 13th, 1899). The eggs are not 

 only laid more or less upright on end in a box, but more frequently 

 round a twig on each other, neustria-Y\ke ; moreover they are not 

 unlike the eggs of Malacosoma neustria or those of M. castrensis in 

 shape (Bacot) ; eggs laid around twigs of blackthorn and ground 

 maple at Chelmsford (Miller) ; round a dried stem of bog-myrtle 

 near Corsemalzie, hatched June 5th, 1898 (Gordon); a ? found on 

 a hawthorn hedge on April 5th, 1893, at Molesworth, had already 

 laid 52 eggs on the twig on which she was resting (Wood); eggs 

 laid May 19th, 1856, hatched June 5th at Fordwich (Cox) ; eggs 

 laid April 22nd, 1885, hatched May 25th, 1885, at Brentwood; 

 another batch found April 27th, 1887, of which one part hatched at 

 Brentwood on May 27th, 1887, the other part in Manitoba on May 

 24th, 1887 (Burrows); a J paired May 20th, 1897, oviposition 

 began same day before sunset, larvae hatched June 1 2th (Newland) ; 

 Newland also notes (/./.) that a $ , that he believed to have been 

 unfertilised, laid eggs on May 7th, 1894, but these hatched May 

 30th — June 2nd ; Bayne notes (/./.) finding a $ on a street lamp- 

 post at Enfield and by her side a number of eggs which she had 

 evidently laid there, April 24th, 1895; eggs laid May 14th, 1896, 

 at York, hatched June 6th, 1896 ; a complete batch laid round a 

 stalk of heather on May nth, 1901, consisted of 167 eggs (Hewett) ; 

 Milton and others have noticed that only the first laid eggs of some 

 batches hatch, and the suggestion arises whether the ? does not fre- 

 quently pair more than once in order to fertilise her whole batch . Holland 

 states that about a third of a batch appears to be laid in one place, 



