THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
107 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The Larva of Epunda Lichenea. — The 
remarks upon this larva have become 
somewhat confused, through misread 
letters. Mr. Dell’s observations upon 
this insect do not entirely accord with 
mine. I have found the most prolific 
months to be April and May for full-fed 
larvae, but they are taken full fed earlier 
and later, and, as I informed Mr. M errin', 
so late as July. Mr. Dell’s remarks are 
true ; but it does uot follow that what he 
knows to be true is all the truth : two 
negatives do not make one positive. The 
nights and the days, too, that I take the 
larvae on are warm ; but by this observa- 
tion I do not mean to aver that they are 
not taken on frosty nights ; neither do I 
undertake to say that frosty is better 
than warm weather for this larva, or vice 
versa. — J. J. Reading ; Dec. 25, 1860. 
EXCHANGE. 
Exchange. — I have duplicates of the 
following, as numbered in the Appendix 
to the ‘ Manual,’ most of them in good 
condition, some a little worn: — Nos. 1, 
2, 3, 12, 19, 21, 25, 33, 37, 38, 50, 61, 
71, 85, 135, 136, 180, 189, 284, 307, 310, 
367, 369, 370, 373, 402,410,418,430, 
461, 464, 495, 503, 789. Any one de- 
sirous of exchanging will please write. 
My wants are numerous: parties not re- 
ceiving an answer within one week may 
consider I am uot in want of their in- 
sects. — Frederick Buckton, 6, Beech 
Grove Terrace, Leeds; Dec. 28, 1860. 
A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 
One day in the autumu of 1859, whilst 
walking through a meadow, I was struck 
with the singular appearance of a grass 
culm, which I saw at a little distance, 
and on picking it up I found it en- 
crusted, for nearly two inches of its 
length, with a covering of eggs, beauti- 
fully arranged in dense order; how many 
of them there were I cannot say exactly, 
but I counted more than a thousand. 
Of course I guessed that such a nu- 
merous brood, destined to eat such a 
common food as grass, could produce no 
rarity, still l determined to see what 
they were; so when the larvae were 
hatched I put a number of them into a 
flower-pot, with a turf: here, as they 
grew big, they bit and killed one another 
in a most fratricidal fashion ; but at last 
there remained about a dozen, who, grown 
wiser, and perhaps sadder, from the fate 
of their relations, found that they might 
all have room and food enough inside 
their flower-pot without inconveniencing 
one another: these, in due time, went 
through all their changes, and emerged 
this summer as splendid specimens of 
Triphaena Pronubu. I was surprised to 
find this species imitating Clisiocampa 
Neustria in the disposal of its eggs, and 
not rather scattering them in twos and 
threes all over the meadow : but in laying 
such a vast number, it seems only to 
follow the example of its congeners. A 
friend of mine had a Fimbria at the 
same time, which laid more than a 
thousand eggs in a box, and, judging 
from the number of larvae one sees when 
returning from the sallows on wet nights 
in spring, I should say that Or bona 
must be quite as prolific. 
With regard to the cannibalism of 
Pronuba, I do not think it fairly deserves 
the stigma any more than many other 
Noctuae, which will bite one another if 
kept in too close quarters ; at least, I 
know that Tceniocampa Cruila, Stabilis 
