Insects. 4653 



Note on the Economy of Saturnia Pyri. — I obtained nineteen cocoons of this spe- 

 cies, collected in the neighbourhood of Paris, in the autumn of 1829. Of sixteen 

 cocoons remaining alive in 1830 (having given two away, and pierced a third, with a 

 view of preserving the pupa), the first imago was hatched about the 27th of March, 

 the cocoons having been kept all the winter in an extremely warm room, which undue 

 degree of heat does not appear at all prejudicial to this insect; two more made their 

 appearance between the above period and the 6th of April, all three females ; leaving, as 

 far as I can judge, but two males in the whole collection, which are not yet (April 7tb) 

 disclosed. The three now existing were perfectly developed, notwithstanding, in the 

 first instance, the cocoons were not bound down, a precaution I adopted immediately 

 for greater security. The females are much more active than I imagined ; fluttering 

 about during the night in their prison, to the great detriment of their wings : their flight 

 is very easy and rapid, and they are readily attracted to a lighted candle. I have just 

 opened the body of a dead female, but, to my surprise, could find neither eggs nor even 

 any apparent ovaries. That tbis insect, in its larva state, is little sensible to cold, may 

 be inferred from the fact, that I could obtain at the close of the most ungenial summer 

 of 1829 no less than nineteen cocoons, and had the season been more propitious 

 I might, probably, have procured many more. — W. A. Bromfield. This note by 

 the late amiable Dr. Bromfield teas obligingly forwarded me for publication by Mr. 

 Curtis. 



Are the Psychidce to be considered Bombyces or Tineina P — This small group, small 

 at least so far as concerns our Fauna, is at present knocking at everybody's door for a 

 protector. Like the genus Eudorea it is bandied about, now here, now there, one 

 refusing to place it amongst the Bombyces, another amongst the Tineina. Much 

 weeding and transplanting has been done of late, and many of the little fellows must 

 feel rather queer with such strange signboards put over them. It seems strange that 

 amongst the many who have such ample means of determining and fixing the " locus'' 

 of the Psychida? — I refer to the records of the researches of others which they possess, 

 as well as to their own investigations — that there should still be so much division on 

 the subject. One party asserts and insists that they are true Bombyces, and so he 

 arranges them in his cabinet. Another prints a list in which they do not figure in that 

 section. A third party, whether acting on this hint or being emboldened at seeing his 

 own views shining through the cloud, pauses until it clears a little, and produces a 

 most able Monograph, showing them to be a section of the true Tineina: many are 

 the comparisons which he calls to his aid. Long before the appearance of Mr. 

 Doubleday's list, — indeed until then I was not aware that any one entertained simi- 

 lar views to myself, — and consequently long before the publication of M. Bruaud's 

 IVfbnograph, I often thought of their great external resemblance to some of the 

 Tineina, from the many points which they held in common with tbat family, from their 

 very earliest stages up to their final development. First, we have the larva bearing 

 its house about with it on its back as in Talaeporia, Solenobia, Diplodoma, Xysmato- 

 doma, &c. Then we have apterous females, as in the two former of these genera. To 

 this circumstance I do not attach so much importance, as I see no reason, because 

 we have not hitherto met with them, why, in the yet unexplored regions of the earth, 

 the Rhopalocera, Sphingina, Noctuina, Pyralidica, &c, should not be found having 

 apterous females. It would only be completing the gradation, and is not drawing loo 

 largely upon the imagination to suppose this. In the males again, the contour of the 

 XIII. R 



