THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



16? 



will send you a male and female with this 

 note, The larvae are found on white-thorn 

 hedges, and are full fed early in June, when 

 they spin up and remain six or eight weeks 

 in the pupa state, the moths appearing 

 about the end of July, or beginning of 

 August. You will see that the form of the 

 band, both on the upper and lower wings is 

 different from your specimens. On the 

 upper wings of ours the band always turns 

 inwards, on the lower margin in the northern 

 ones it turns outwards, and on the under 

 wings of these, the yellow band turns down 

 to the anal angle thus ^ while in our it is 

 nearly a semicircle thus ^ . I believe in 

 all your northern specimens the white spot 

 on the upper wings of the male is seen on 

 the under as well as on the upper surface. 

 I never saw the least trace of it on the 

 underside of the wings of our specimens, 

 and I really think it is a species distinct 

 from yours, the general appearance of the 

 two is so very different." 



Again (April 30, 1867) referring to the same 

 subject, he says : — " I think I sent you two 

 or three specimens of our Bombyx quercus 

 some time since. Sixty years ago Hubner 

 figured the sexes of a moth he called Spa/rtii, 

 but little appears to have been known about 

 it, till lately, and most modern continental 

 authors have given it as a simple variety 

 of quercus. Early in this year my kind 

 friend, M. Guenee sent me a male and 

 female which he had bred from larvae found 

 by M. Milliere, at Cannes, in the south 

 of France, and he assured me it was 

 really distinct from quercus, the larvae of the 

 two species being different. I must con- 

 fess when I saw the moths I was a little 

 sceptical about them. I, however, bor- 

 rowed Hubner's volume on the Bombyces, 

 from my friend, J. H. Douglas, and found 

 they agreed exactly with the figures. 

 Two weeks since I wrote to M. Milliere, 

 and asked him if he could send me two or 

 three larvae of Spartii by post. I was 



almost too late, but on Sunday I received 

 from him four cocoons and four larvae ; I 

 was quite surprised to see the latter so 

 different from those of quercus. They are 

 clothed with longish silky pale or white 

 hairs, and on each side of every segment of 

 the body there is a tuft of reddish hairs, of 

 which there is no trace in the larvae of 

 quercus. M. Milliere says it is a rare and 

 extremely local species, and that at Cannes 

 he mostly finds the larvae on Erica scoparia 

 — a heath which blooms at this time of the 

 year — or on common broom, but they will 

 eat Laurustinus. I really do not think I 

 could separate the females of Spartii from 

 those of our quercus; and the only difference 

 that I can see in the male is in the yellow 

 band on the anterior wings, which is rather 

 straighter in Spartii than it is in quercus. 

 Still, if I had known nothing of their his- 

 tory, I should unhesitatingly have said that 

 they were our quercus,'^ 



Another favourite insect with Varley was 

 the Magpie Moth (Abraxas grossulariata) . 

 He bred a great many of this insect, and in 

 1864 he bred eleven black varieties. One 

 of these he seems to have sent to Mr. 

 Doubleday, for on October 26th, 1865, Mr. 

 Doubleday writes: — "I do not know how 

 to thank you sufficiently for the beautiful 

 varieties of A grossulariata which you have 

 so kindly sent me. They are very interesting, 

 and the darkest is really beautiful. I have 

 a photograph of a similar specimen, but 

 never saw the reality before. Mr. Chanti 

 of London, possesses a specimen entirely 

 black, without the least trace of white or 

 yellow upon it. Lepidoptera certainly vary 

 more in the central part of England than 

 they do here. I have seen thousands of 

 grossulariata^ but never saw more than two 

 or three varieties worth notice : one of these 

 is almost white, the usual black spots being 

 very small, and the yellow fascia very con- 

 spicuous." The black variety has been 

 named Varley ata by Mr. Porritt. 



