134 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[July 



well-known to need description or a figure, as it has been taken by 

 several writers on insects, as their type for this family. Those 

 amateurs who have no elaborate works of reference to consult will 

 perhaps be glad of a note indicating that Houghton's British Insects 

 and Figuier's Insect World supply illustrations of the perfect Moth. 

 The account given by the latter (p. 193 of Cassell's edition) is so ex- 

 actly in harmony with my own experience that I quote his words. 

 " We will take the genus Sesia as the representative of the Sesiidae. 

 These singular insects have membranous wings, and resemble various 

 species of Hymenoptra. The largest species is the Sesia apiformis, 

 that is 1 bee-like,' which is found in this country, resting on the trunks 

 of willows and poplar trees, from the end of May till the middle of 

 July. It resembles a hornet, and is of the same size, and has the same 

 colours ; only they are not quite so bright. When this moth is first 

 hatched its wings are ferruginous ; but its scales, light and caducous, 

 fall as soon as the insect begins to fly. The caterpillar, which lives in 

 the trunks or roots of willows and poplar trees is of a yellowish [or 

 mahogany] colour. The pupa is long, of a brownish colour, enclosed 

 in a cocoon composed of agglutinated sawdust, the product of the 

 caterpillars' erosions. I observe that the sawdust is lined with a fine 

 silk ; the pupa when just ready to emerge is nearly an inch (4 of an 

 inch actual measurement in one of my specimens) in length, but after 

 emergence the pupa-case is found to be stretched to almost one and a 

 half times that length and size." In Figuier's figure the antennae are 

 much too slight. This insect's appearance affords an excellent illustra- 

 tion of protective mimicry — a subject which has been very ably treated 

 by several eminent naturalists. — Rev. Hilderic Friend, Carlisle. 



Deferred Emergence.— You desire information on this subject. 

 I fed 14 larvae of 5. ligustri in 1887, 8 of these emerged in 1888, 5 in 

 1889, and 1 died in pupa. I have fed C. verbasci four different times 

 and always found about two-thirds emerge the first year, and one-third 

 remain two winters in pupa. On the other hand I have had odd 

 specimens of 5. popidi emerge the same year. — J. W. Boult, Hull. 



On 4th June a specimen of A crony eta leporina emerged in my 

 breeding cage that had been in pupa since 1888. In that year 

 I found two larva at Cole Hill, near Hutton Henry, and had given 

 up any idea of seeing an imago from them. — John Gardner, 

 Hartlepool. 



