140 
TEE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Notes on Lepidopterous larva. 
( continued .) 
E. Bipunctaria. Larvae hatched 
from eggs sent me this summer, 
chose, for their food, the Black 
Medick ( Medico go lupulina,) but 
will not, I expect, attain their 
full growth till next Spring. 
0. Chcerophyllata. I had eggs of this 
species sent me last ^Autumn, 
the larvae from which hatched 
about the middle of February; 
they chose chervil ( Chcerophyl- 
lum temulentum,) and one or two 
of them attained some size, but 
by the middle of April they had 
all disappeared, whether des- 
troyed byjsome insects, or starv- 
* 
ed for want of proper food, I 
cannot tell. 
I have said nothing, in these notes 
about the effect of variety of food on 
the coloring of the perfect insect, be- 
cause it is a subject which I have 
never specially kept before myself, in 
rearing Lepidoptera ; but this I icnow 
— that in the case of variable species 
I have hadj specimens of the same 
tint produced from larvae fed on diff- 
erent kinds of food, and on the other 
hand, I have seen a batch of larvae, 
kept all together and fed on some one 
plant, produce all the varieties of the 
perfect insect. That the size and per- 
fect development of the imago depend 
greatly on one’s supplying the larva 
with the food which it likes best, can- 
not be doaibted, and hence it is that 
every little scrap of the actual expe- 
rience of others, in feeding larvae, be- 
comes valuable to those, who, like 
myself, can pursue only the stay-at- 
home part of observing insect life. 
Thus, the hint that many species 
would in confinement, eat Knot Grass 
( Polygonum avicularc ) has been of 
great service to me : and I have found 
that many of the hybernating larvae 
will thrive well on this, with Dock 
and Ckickweed, in the Autumn ; and 
in the Spring, after hybernation, feed 
on young buds of Sloe and White- 
thorn, till the leaves are developed, 
when they will willingly finish off 
on thorn or cherry blossom. Whether 
the parent moth would have deposited 
her eggs on these plants is another 
thing altogether, and I have, there- 
fore, always been careful to dis- 
tinguish between larvae reared from 
the egg, in captivity, and those 
captured, in a Btate of freedom, on 
their more natural food. Of course, 
wc cannot say that we are acquainted 
with the life history of any species 
until we know the food which the 
# 
instinct of the perfect insect leads 
her to choose, as best suited for her 
offspring : but there is one reason 
why I especially wish to promote 
breeding from the egg, — and that is, 
to prevent the extermination, — total 
or partial, — of local species. Doubt- 
less a female moth or butterfly will, 
in a state of freedom, deposit more 
eggs than if she were shut up in a box ; 
but I think that, supposing wc know 
the right food for the larva), the 
chances are that, in confinement, we 
shall breed far more imugos from one 
