AGKIADES CORIDON. 61 



placed centrally and low down ; probably the instinct is identical in 

 both broods. In confinement, the butterflies would not lay on plants 

 in water, but laid freely when the plants were laid flat on the bottom 

 of a box ; all the eggs were laid low down, and nearly all under- 

 neath stems and leaves, and close to the bottom of the box. Zeller 

 states (Stett. Ent. Ztg., 1852, p. 42) that he twice observed a 2 

 egglaying ; on the first occasion the egg was laid on a small stem of 

 moss, the other on a fallen pine-needle near the Coronilla. He adds 

 that he thinks it probable that the egg does not hatch till the following- 

 spring, the first hint of the real hybernating-habit in Central 

 Europe, which we were able to confirm, in the case of a single egg 

 in the winter of 1897-8. Wood notes (in liti.) that, in confinement, 

 2 s lay freely either on the underside of the leaflets of H. comosa or, 

 more frequently, on dried moss which he always provided in addition ; 

 the eggs go over the winter and hatch the last week in March or the 

 first week in April, according to the forwardness or lateness of the season. 

 Frohawk observed (Ent., xxxiii., p. 300) several 2 s ovipositing, on 

 August 13th, 1900, on various stems of the usual stunted herbage to 

 be found growing on chalk-downs; they frequently crawled among the 

 plants for a distance of about a couple of feet, occasionally curving the 

 abdomen downwards among the small plant-stems and grasses, and 

 here and there deposited an egg. In confinement, on the 14th and 

 15th, 2 s placed over a piece of potted turf, laid eggs on dead trefoil 

 leaves, as well as on living leaves, but the site generally chosen was 

 among the intermingled stems of plants and grasses ; another 2 > 

 placed upon a similar pot of plants, deposited about 50 ova on Septem- 

 ber 10th, nearly all being placed upon the stems, but a few on the 

 underside of the leaves, of rock-rose ; in all cases the eggs were 

 deposited singly. Chapman noted (in lift.) some English eggs as looking 

 healthy, but still unhatched March 8th, 1907, but the eggs that he 

 obtained, laid in April, 1907, at Ste. Maxime in the south of France, 

 soon hatched, two on May 5th, another on the 6th, three more on 

 May 7th, and so on ; a later observation is to the effect that, on Feb- 

 ruary 22nd, 1910, he received several eggs of A. coridon that had gone 

 over the winter at Dartford, from L.W. Newman, several } 7 oung larvae 

 having hatched on the way ; on the morning of February 23rd, 125 

 had hatched, on February 24th rather more than 60, on February 25th, 

 30 more, on February 26th the last one was found with the egg-shells 

 and various dried eggs. It would seem from this that once the larva3 

 inside the eggs have satisfied their instincts for hybernation, they are 

 ready to hatch on the first suitable rise of temperature to which 

 they are submitted. It is probable that, naturally, the same rise of 

 temperature that hatches the larvae has already started some growth of 

 the foodplant, and it appears evident, from the habit of these newly- 

 hatched larvae that, if they have unluckily hatched a little too soon, they 

 can keep themselves alive by nibbling any available old and tough leaves 

 they may find. Noad-Clark observes (Proc. Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc, 

 1900, p. 50) that an egg laid at Abries, August 12th, 1900 (figured 

 Ent. Rec, xii., pi. xi., fig. 2) hatched September 14th, 1900. One 

 wonders whether this is an error of observation, as it is well-known 

 that the species uniformly hybernates in England and Central Europe 

 as an egg. 



Ovum. — The egg forms a flattened disc with a quite flattened base 



