1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



H5 



specimens have immigrated here, possibly French, although as they 

 do not travel labelled, one can only judge by their agreement with 

 French examples in my possession, and these caught specimens 

 never, or very rarely indeed, do agree with our English-bred insects. 

 Of course, I fully agree that some specimens of English-fed Galii may 

 be captured, as we know that they do breed here, but my opinion is 

 that this brood is weakened and would fail to reproduce for more than 

 at most two seasons, would get less in numbers from failing develop- 

 ment, and that it is only in a season when we have had a flight of 

 immigrants that we get a year like 1888. How rarely indeed do we get 

 them in numbers two years consecutively. My experience in breeding 

 lepidoptera is probably much more extensive than that of Mr. C. A. 

 Briggs. I know that bred insects, when treated naturally, give as a 

 result, specimens quite as large as those captured as imagines, and 

 in many cases they are much finer. I can show larger bred specimens 

 of N. centonalis, N. albulalis, and A . ochvata, than any specimens I have 

 captured, and I have taken them all freely, and so with many others. 

 Given that you inbreed several times, or treat your larvae unskilfully, 

 then naturally you dwarf your brood. In concluding my remarks on 

 D. galii, I may mention that the passage from any part of France to 

 the British Isles would have been easy flight for any of the strong- 

 winged Hawk Moths. They have been reported at a very great dis- 

 tance from any land — hundreds of miles — and even insects of much 

 weaker powers, as the Pievidcz, I have myself seen 15 to 20 miles 

 from land, and apparently none the worse for their flight. It is well 

 known that lepidoptera can settle on water and rise again, apparently 

 refreshed by their bath, see Entomologist, Vol. VI, page 152. 



With most of Mr. Sharp's article (Young Naturalist, p. 96) I most 

 fully agree, only making exception for what I call visitors and 

 irregulars, and then I think the cause is climatic, rather than what 

 might be termed natural, i.e. enemies. As to Mr. Sharp's remarks on 

 Galii larvae being found in greater numbers on the Cheshire sandhills 

 than on the South-east coast of Kent, / do think he is mistaken, and that 

 Galii larvae were possibly in greater numbers on our South-east coasts. 

 My own captures were roughly 200, and that of course proves they 

 were by no means rare in Kent. From these captures I have bred 

 in imagines, and still three living pupae remain. Not a single larvae 

 was attacked by any parasite, the greater part of the loss in number 

 being by the death of those that pupated after the cold change of 

 weather, and which fact points its own conclusion. There has been 

 no record from Cheshire of any one taking as many. Of course it would 



