POLYOMMATTJS (lYOENA) ARGIOLUS. 95 



the second of these two pupae, after eighteen days, 

 there came a female butterfly on July 14th ; the first 

 pupa remained over till May 25th, 1876, when it pro- 

 duced an ichneumon.* 



After this, on the 5th of August, 1875, I received 

 from Mr. E. F. Bisshopp, of Ipswich, who had taken 

 great pains to secure some female butterflies of the 

 second or summer flight, a batch of seven or eight 

 eggs, laid just beneath the flower heads of an umbel of 

 ivy (Hedera helix) ; unfortunately, only two of them 

 proved fertile, and I had the further misfortune to kill 

 one of the larvae whilst changing its food, but in the 

 very same process was afterwards lucky enough to find 

 compensation for its loss. For, early in September I 

 found I had unconsciously gathered with a head of ivy 

 flower buds, resting on one of the flower stalks, a larva 

 in its third moult ; and being thus led to look for 

 more, I afterwards found two others in similar 

 situations. 



The dates for the changes of the larva, which I suc- 

 ceeded in carrying through from the egg 9 and which, 

 from the first, ate tender ivy leaves rather than flowers, 

 are as follows : hatched August 8th ; moulted by the 

 12th, a second time by the 16th, and a third time by 

 the 20th ; after that I have recorded a moult between 

 September 1st and 5th ; by the -10th it was mature, on 

 the 13th it fixed itself for changing, and on the 17th 

 became a pupa; thus passing just forty days in the 

 larva state ; the butterfly, a male, appeared on the 6th 

 April, 1876 (202 days having been passed in the pupa 

 state), but perhaps its emergence had been somewhat 

 hastened by its being kept sheltered indoors. 



In a general way, therefore, the year's history may 

 be divided as follows : the first flight of the butterflies 

 is at the end of April and in May ; the larvae from these 

 are hatched at the end of May, and feed on holly 



* Unfortunately this ichneumon got damaged before the Rev. T. A. 

 Marshall saw it ; hence, though he was able to refer it to the genus 

 Limneria, he was not able to identify the species. 



