4740 Insects. 



fellows on Salisbury Plain, must grievously puzzle philosophers yet unborn. — Edward 

 Newman. 



Gonepteryx Rhamni double-brooded. — Touching the question whether Gonepteryx 

 Rhamni be double-brooded, no one, I presume, can deny that there are at least two (if 

 not more) flights of the insect in the course of the year ; and this perhaps may be all 

 that Mr. Hawker meant by saying that it is " double-brooded." Certain it is that the 

 insect appears on the wing in the early spring, and again later in the year, generally 

 in August, according to my own experience, or the end of July. In the ' Butterfly 

 Collector's Vade Mecum,' "spring, beginning of June, and in autumn" are stated as 

 the periods of its flight. The Rev. F. 0. Morris says, " There are two broods, one in 

 May, the other in the autumn. Many of the autumnal brood live through the winter, 

 and are to be seen in the spring, even so early sometimes as February and March." 

 " These early specimens," say Humphreys and Westwood, " have survived the winter, 

 and produce eggs, from which a fresh brood of butterflies is produced in May, and 

 another in the autumn, some of which last again survive the winter." Time was when 

 I used to suppose that all the early vernal specimens were such as had hybernated, or 

 lived through the winter in the winged state ; but in this opinion I stood corrected by 

 a practical entomologist, who directed my attention to the perfectly fresh and brilliant 

 condition in which some, at least, of the vernal specimens appeared, which showed, he 

 said, that they could not have hybernated, but must have emerged from the chrysalis 

 at that early season. If this be so, — if there are two different periods of the year at 

 which G. Rhamni comes forth from the chrysalis, — is it not an insect, which, in the 

 language of collectors, is styled "double-brooded?" I well remember being once 

 called to account by a talented naturalist for using the term " double-brooded '' as ap- 

 plied to an insect which makes its appearance at two different times of the year. The 

 expression, I was told, was ambiguous and incorrect. I merely replied that I believed 

 it was perfectly intelligible to all collectors, and the term constantly employed by them 

 to express an insect of which there are two flights during the year. Nobody doubts 

 that this is the case with G. Rhamni, whether the specimens have hybernated, or come 

 fresh from the chrysalis in the spring. Probably some individuals fall under one 

 description, and some under the other. I am surprised, therefore, to find that the 

 idea of G. Rhamni being double-brooded should be new to Mr. Newman, Mr. Double- 

 day and other eminent Lepidopterists (Zool. p. 4706). I will add that Haworth says, 

 under Papilio Rhamni, " Mas et fern, vivant per hyemem. Femina ova ponit tempore 

 vernali." Though, strange to say, both in his 'Prodromus' and in * Lepidoptera 

 Britannica,' he merely gives the beginning of June as the time of the insects ap- 

 pearing. — W. T. Bree ; Allesley Rectory, May 12, 1855. 



Capture of Gastropacha ilicifolia on Cannock Chase. — I hasten to inform you that 

 two specimens of Gastropacha ilicifolia were this day captured on Cannoch Chase, 

 near Rugeley, Staffordshire, by my friend Arthur Partridge, Esq. The insects were in 

 repose on an old oak post, not many yards from the spot in which the first English 

 specimen was taken by my brother, W. S. Atkinson, Esq., in May, 1851. Not being 

 myself an entomologist I must content myself with mentioning the fact. — H. G. 

 Atkinson, Curate of Rugeley ; April 27, 1855. 



Occurrence of Notodonta carmelita in Kent. — A single specimen of this rare insect 

 was taken at West Wickham by Mr. Standish, jun., on the 13th of May, and a second 

 by myself on the 14 th; the last-mentioned was a female in fine condition. — William 

 Machin; 35, William Street, Globe Fields, Mile End, May 15, 1855. 



