Insects. 



5925 



Lasiocampa Callunce : is it a Species P — Mr. Richard Weaver, as much as nine 

 years ago, contended (Zool. 1655) that it was; and since that tirae many other ento- 

 molo<?ists have expressed the same opinion. Nevertheless, the name has never ap- 

 peared in our lists. I will now present the readers of the ' Zoologist' with my own 

 ohservations on the suhject. Early in the present year, that is in March, 1857, 

 chance took me to Scotland, and, thus being on the right ground, I resolved to learn 

 all I could, and form my judgment from my own personal observations ; and, by the 

 way, if all entomologists did the same we should not have so many mistakes made and 

 repeated as we have at present. In the April following, while collecting on the moors, 

 I found several empty cocoons and two full ones. These were spun up amidst moss 

 and heather, and in the very wettest places. This is quite at variance with the usual 

 habits of its congener, L. Quercus ; and T was, moreover, particularly struck with the 

 greater size and peculiar colour of the cocoons. Towards the end of June I ob- 

 served several males flying over the moors, but I did not capture one. However, 

 early in July a boy brought me a female, which soon deposited a number of eggs, 

 much larger than those of L. Quercus. The young larvae soon made their appear- 

 ance ; and I instantly had the pleasure of observing that they were totally diffe- 

 rent from those of Quercus : they were of a dark brown colour, with bright yellow 

 bands between the segments of the body, very much as in the young larvae of L.Rubi, 

 which, indeed, they much resembled ; and they had none of those white hairs 

 which distinguish the young larvae of L. Quercus. Some of these larvae were sent to 

 Captain Cox to figure, and others retained : these, as they advanced towards maturity, 

 became more and more like their congener, especially in the last skin, a fact already 

 stated by Mr. Weaver. The larvae I retained have spun up, and I have several now 

 in pupa. The full-grown larva is larger than that of L. Quercus ; it feeds greedily 

 on heather {Calluna vulgaris), ivy, birch, raspberry, sallow, and every other plant that 

 comes in its way. The imago is much larger, and different in colour. I feel certain 

 therefore that L. Callunae is a species. Suppose I were to state that Psi and tridens, 

 or Cucullia Verbasci and Scrophulariae, were one species, and point to the exact simi- 

 larity of colouring and marking, would not entomologists at once reply, " Oh, but the 

 larvae are totally different." This is considered conclusive and unanswerable, and if 

 so in one case why not in another .f* I may add that L. Callunae was found in the 

 fens of Huntingdonshire many years back, by Mr. Courtnay, Mr. Standish and my- 

 self, as recorded at the time (Zool. 1731). In conclusion, I have only to add that I 

 shall have great pleasure in answering any questions or objections that may be raised 

 by any one in the pages of the 'Zoologist.' — H. J, Harding ; 1, York Street, Church 

 Street, Shoreditch, November 30, 1857. [The capture of Lasiocampa Callunae in 

 Huntingdonshire has been regarded as militating against the specific disiiuctness of 

 what is called the Scotch eggar ; but this observation will be found to bear only on 

 the impropriety of that name. Supposing the two species to be really and perma- 

 nently distinct, I should expect to find them domiciled together at Kinloch Rannoch, 

 the fens of Huntingdonshire, Hampstead Heath, Dartmoor and the Cornish Heaths. 

 If we find a large and dark-coloured insect confined to Scotland, the very excusable 

 and immediate conclusion would be, " It is only a Scotch variety ;" but a more philo- 

 sophic inquiry is opened up by the southward extension of its geographical range. — 



Does any Insect feed on the Tea-tree P — Mr. Stainion having, in his 'Entomologi- 

 cal Botany,' led us to suppose that every tree and plant is preyed upon by some 



