Insects. 5325 



Duration of Pupa-state in Acherontia Atropos. — In the last' Intelligencer' infor- 

 mation is requested relative to the pupa-state of Acherontia Atropos. About eight 

 years ago a friend brought me a full-grown larva, which was dug up in a garden near 

 the barracks, and was so large that I was afraid to put it with any other insects, so I 

 placed it in an old cigar-box, filled with leaf-mould and covered with a piece of net: 

 it went down and then came up to the top of the mould, and then went down a second 

 time. It went down on the 28th of July, and came out on the 17th of September, 

 which was fifty-two days. T had the good fortune to be standing by when it came 

 out, or it might have got damaged if puss had got at it, she having as great a fancy 

 for catching moths as her master, though for quite a different purpose. Some time 

 after it had changed to the pupa I was curious enough to examine its whereabouts : 

 I cleared the mould away until I came to a portion which was hard and of an oval 

 shape, of about 3£ inches in length by 2\ in width : I did not like to continue the 

 examination any longer, so I covered it up, but after it came out I examined it, and 

 found it composed of mould kneaded into a sort of paste, which the larva had mixed 

 with gum ; I could find very little silk mixed up with it, but I could see it was proof 

 against moisture. I had another larva brought me the same season, but it was too 

 late, and it died in the winter after going into pupa : I think they do not stand the 

 winter well; the shell of the pupa is so thin that the least puncture will prove fatal. 

 I had a very fine pupa brought to me by one of our men, who was poking with a stick 

 at the side of an old gravel-pit: it changed in the sand where the water came quite 

 close to it, but it either got a squeeze, or was otherwise injured with the slick, for it 

 died in two or three days. — James McLaren ; Worley Barracks, October 20, 1856. 



Larva of Slauropus Fagi on the South Downs of Sussex. — Toward the end of last 

 September, my friend and neighbour Dr. Smith, when walking up the village, observed 

 on the path a caterpillar, the peculiar aspect of which attracting his attention, he 

 carried it home, and, on referring to Knight's ' Pictorial Museum of Animated 

 Nature,' he recognised it from the figure of Stauropus Fagi. The creature, on being 

 supplied with some beech-leaves, immediately enclosed itself between a couple of 

 them, apparently being full-fed, aud having been, when found, in the act of travelling 

 from the place where it had been produced in search of a fit spot for its next trans- 

 formation. I doubt whether there is more than one beech tree in the garden where 

 this specimen was probably bred ; there may be others in the village, but they cannot 

 be numerous, and all, without an exception, must be very small. The nearest planta- 

 tion wherein other beech trees may exist must be distant more than half a mile in a 

 direct line, and there is a much longer interval between any situation where a few 

 such trees may stand and any extensive collection of them, such as the park and 

 planted woods of the Earl of Chichester, at Stanmer. As the insect is stated to be 

 rare in England, its occurrence in such a very unlikely district as this part of the 

 South Downs of Sussex may be interesting to entomologists. Since Dr. Smith 

 possesses no information how the chrysalis should be treated to ensure its preservation 

 in life, — at what period it may be expected to change, and what is the figure of the 

 imago, — he will be thankful for intelligence on those particulars in a future number of 

 the 'Zoologist.' — Arthur Hussey ; Rvtlinydean, October 21, 1856. 



[The pupae of Stauropus Fagi do not require any particular care: the larva? 

 usually spin two or three leaves together, and, when fouud in this state, Mr. Doubleday 

 informs me he usually cuts off the nest thus formed, and pins it up to the side of the 

 breeding-cage. In the woods these nests, in all probability, fall with the falling 



