Insects. 4899 



Poecilocampa Populi. September 6th, larva feeding upon poplars. 



Lasiocampa Trifolii. This species, in the larva state, is very abundant on the 

 coast from the beginning of May till the first days in July ; and the imago from 

 August 25th continues for about a month. 



Apatela leporina. Within the last fortnight I have taken six larvae of this 

 species, feeding upon black poplars. 



Heliophobus hispida. I had one of these rare moths come forth from a pupa I 

 took on the coast. 



Cucullia Chamomillae. This summer I have taken five larva? of this rather rare 

 species. 



Heliothis peltigera. Last year and this I have been fortunate enough to rear 

 this rare species. 



Ennomos illustraria. This is attracted by light belter than by perhaps any other 

 method. 



The plumes are represented here by Pterophorus cosmodactylus, P. calodactylus, 

 P. acanthodactvlus, P. phaeodactylus, and several others, as also the pretty Alucita 

 polydactylus. — J. J. Reading ; 5, Union Street, Plymouth, September 21, 1855. 



Occurrence of Colias Edusa and Colias Hyale near Brighton. — From the 12th to 

 the 22nd of September I have taken, near Kemp Town, five specimens of C. Edusa and 

 two of C. Hyale, and one a female variety of Edusa, C. Helice, a very beautiful 

 specimen, and the exact representation of the one figured in Humphrey and West- 

 wood's book, and which in this neighbourhood seems a very rare insect with collectors : 

 there have altogether been about thirty specimens of C. Edusa and four or five of 

 C. Hyale taken by different collectors in the above locality. — Frederick Sharp; 

 100, Trafalgar Street, Brighton, September 24, 1855. 



Double-hroodednesa of Gonepteryx Rhamni. — Mr. Stainton's inquiries respecting 

 G. Rhamni, in the September number of the ' Zoologist' (p. 4813), are in effect already 

 answered by the excellent remarks of my friends Doubleday and Douglas, which ap- 

 peared at the same time. I believe no one ever doubted that the hybernated specimens 

 laid eggs in the spring ; but with regard to his second query, Do not these eggs pro- 

 duce larvae which feed up in May? I may be allowed to say that, if such were the 

 case, we should of course find them full fed at the end of that month ; and how a larva 

 which feeds on buckthorn, and takes nearly two months to arrive at maturity, could 

 attain its full growth in this country by the end of May, I leave such profound 

 botanists as Mr. Stainton to determine; it certainly appears to me, that for a large 

 portion of its life it would have to subsist on the branches or roots, especially in such 

 backward springs as the last. My experience fully confirms the statements of 

 Messrs. Doubleday and Douglas, already published : I found the larvae early in July 

 last in all stages of growth; these of course were the progeny of the hybernated 

 specimens, and it seems to me quite impossible for them to become full fed earlier in 

 this country. I must protest against Mr. Stainton's assertion, that no one in Britain 

 has noticed the transformations of G. Rhamni, merely because he has not done so 

 himself. It is true Stephens says (lllust. Haust. vol. i. p. 9), "This insect is 

 apparently double-brooded." Mr. Curtis ('British Entomology,' p. 175) says, "and 

 the eggs which are then deposited (by the hybernated specimens) produce green 

 caterpillars that feed upon the buckthorn, and again appear as butterflies in August." 

 This is a plain and correct history of the insect, and published some years before 

 Mr. Stainton commenced his able career as an entomological author. I fully admit 



