Insects. 



6247 



does not get broken j I think I have bent it for him already in the very first thrust. 

 Mr. Newman has also made a great mistake in stating that the larva? I found 

 feeding upon pellitory were those of Vanessa Alalanta. I still positively state that 

 they were Cynthia Cardui. (See ' Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer' for July, No. 

 94, p. 125). After the Cardui were full fed, then came the Atalanta ; this I found out 

 myself after I had bred some of them. — H,J. Harding; I, York Street^ Church 

 Street, Shoreditch, September 2, 1858. 



[I am well aware that if I append a single word to this communication I give 

 Mr. Harding the right of a second reply: to this he is most welcome ; indeed, I think 

 he is rather called on to give a little further explanation : if I clearly comprehend 

 this communication, Mr. Harding admils that he did send to Mr. Logan, " without 

 examination,' certain larvae as those of Agestis in "error;" but at the same time he 

 states that this season he has sent the right larvae " to ten correspondents." Now, in 

 his first communication, Mr. Harding only refers to what he did years ago and leaves 

 untouched the fresh evidence of the present year. Of course I could only deal with 

 the first statement while I was ignorant of the second, but Mr. Harding's reply above 

 seems to corroborate my assertion, that the footless green larvae mistaken by him for those 

 of a butterfly were actually those of a beetle : is not this the very error for which Mr. 

 Harding proposes to atone next spring ? Then again, as regards Atalanta, did not Mr. 

 Harding mistake tlie larvae of Atalanta for those of Cardui ? and did he not "find 

 this out himself after he had bred some of them ? " It seems to me absolutely im- 

 possible that Mr. Harding should not know the larva of Atalanta ; but how 

 else shall we read his ov/n explanation? I now can only say, in conclusion, that my 

 friend Harding shall enjoy the unmolested privilege of a final reply, and that no edi- 

 torial commentary shall be appended thereto. — Edward Newman']. 



The Artaxerxes Question. — I know nothing of the larva of P. Agestis, and therefore 

 can give no opinion as to whether it is or is not a variety of P. Artaxerxes. It appears, 

 however, to me, that till both species have been reared from the same larvae, no one has 

 a right to say that they are identical. I must confess that I am an utter unbeliever 

 in what are called permanent varieties or races. If a so-called variety lays a brood of 

 eggs which all produce a moth precisely similar to the parent, I maintain that this is 

 the strongest possible evidence that this so-called variety is a species.' Mr. Logan 

 remarks (Zool. 6100) that he should never expect to rear Artaxerxes from an egg laid 

 by Agestis, and vice versa: he could not, to my mind, in the absence of other evidence, 

 have used a more convincing proof that the species are distinct. I have never yet 

 heard or read anything which has induced me to believe in the existence of permanent 

 varieties or races in Lepidoptera. I do not think that the experiment has been tried 

 upon a sufficiently large scale to warrant the adoption of any such theory. Mr. 

 Harding remarks (Zool. 6211) that the larva of P. Alexis is very seldom found : I can 

 only say that it is very plentiful here ; I have taken it by dozens when brushing Ononis 

 campestris for the larva of H. marginata. I do not know whether the larva of 

 P. Agestis is apodal, but that of P. Alexis certainly is not, at least not more so than 

 the larva of the Thecla, which it closely resembles ; indeed a tyro would find it hard to 

 distinguish between the larva of T. Rubi and P. Alexis. The latter can walk about 

 perfectly well and crawl about its food-plant ; it drops at the slightest touch : the pupa, 

 like that of T. Quercus, is enclosed in a slight web at the roots of the grass. I see no 

 reason why the larva of P. Agestis should suffer from apodal affliction when its brother 

 Argiolus is free to revel on the top of a holly tree, and I am at a loss to conceive why 



