Insects. 



8647 



bably composed of chitine. Perhaps in the case before me, if the 

 animal had been reposing on a stone instead of soft mud and sand, 

 the first formed portion of the tube would have been adherent. 



I add Montagu's description (slightly condensed) of the species, the 

 accuracy of which is proved by my specimen : — 



" Sabella vesiculosa. Body with many segments, pale, dull orange, 

 minutely speckled with white. Tentacles [gill fans] two, with about 

 twenty-eight long ciliated fibres each, olive-green motiled with gray, 

 partly in bands when expanded, not forming a circle but sub-convolute, 

 the under part turning inward. At the points of each ray is a dark 

 purple vesicle, most conspicuous on the anterior ray of each plume, 

 terminated by a short hyaline appendage. Mouth gaping ; lips whitish, 

 with two slender cirrhi ; behind the tentacles a scalloped membrane, 

 surrounding the anterior end of the animal. Length six or seven 

 inches. Tube coriaceous, but always coated with coarse sand and 

 shells, ten or twelve inches in length." 



Melitcea Cinxia. — As the time for the appearance of this local insect is close at 

 hand, I send you the dates of its appearance for the last few years: — 1857, June 2 ; 

 1858, June 4; 1859, May 30; 1860, June 7; 1861, May 27; 1862, none. — 

 J. Pristo ; Alverstone, Whippingham, Isle of Wight, Mag 18, 1863. 



Bombyx Callunce : its Mode of Laying Eggs. — I have just been glancing over the 

 * Zoologist' for 1861, and in the paragraph "On the Habits of Bombyx Callunae " 

 (Zool. 7360), I find, " On depositing her eggs, which she lays around the stems of the 

 food-plant," &c. Has not the writer of this observation mistaken the ova of Saturnia 

 Carpini for those of this species, both of which occur in some abundance in the same 

 locality ? The former insect certainly deposits her eggs in clusters around the food- 

 plant, the latter never. Having paid some attention to the habits of this species I 

 submit the following note from my journal for 1861-2. "From one to two hours 

 after copulation( which extends to about three hours) the female takes wing, and flies 

 swiftly, in circles, over the food-plant (Calluna vulgaris), reminding one of the peculiar 

 oscillating movement of the Hepialidce, and dropping her eggs as she flies. The time 

 thus occupied seldom exceeds from twenty to forty minutes ; she then settles down, 

 and rarely lives out the day.'' I shall have great pleasure in forwarding ova of this 

 species to any gentleman desirous of breeding it, providing applications be sent not 

 later than June 8ih. — George H. Parke ; Halifax. 



Note on Amphydasis prodromaria. — From a large brood of this insect I have 

 obtained thirty-four perfect specimens ; a few were small, but most of them of the 

 average size. The first, a small one, came out on the 27th of January, out of doors, 

 when the thermometer was at 45° in the shade ; but the greatest burst of them was on 

 the 20th of March; thermometer nearly 50°. I had two out on the 16th of April, 

 which were probably the last. With regard to the time of emerging, the earliest 

 noticed was 11.45 a. m. and the latest about 2 p. m. On the 20th of March several 



