THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
29 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Acherontia Atropos. — This fine insect 
being now “ in season,” in its three stages 
of larva, pupa and imago, I will, if per- 
mitted, make a few remarks in reply to 
queries which have, from time to time, 
appeared in the pages of the ‘ Intelli- 
gencer.’ The time of its duration in the 
pupa state varies exceedingly, from a few 
weeks to as many mouths: I have had 
some experience with them in former 
years, and am enabled to state that if the 
larva is found full fed, by about tlie mid- 
dle of July the imago will, under favour- 
able circumstances, be produced iu Sep- 
tember or October. I hose larvie which 
are found in the latter months pass the 
whole winter and spring iu the pupa 
state, and unless they perish in that 
slate (which is frequently the case), the 
perfect insect will appear early in the 
summer, say in June or July, and from 
this brood proceed the larvae, which are 
now being found daily. In reply to the 
enquiry at p. 196 of the ‘Intelligencer’ 
(No. 103), as to the noise made by the 
dark-coloured variety of the larva, I beg 
to say that in the year 1846 I had three 
or four of this beautiful and singular 
variety, having white markings on the 
anterior segments, and white stripes on 
the sides, in place of the blue or purple 
ones : none of these, however, produced 
the noise mentioned by your correspon- 
dent, but I had a beautil'ul green one 
which made this singular noise very dis- 
tinctly, and which occasioned the cot- 
tagers who found it to remark, not in- 
aptly, that it “snapped its teeth at 
them and sometimes the noise was re- 
peated in quick succession, as stated by 
your correspondent. In the year before 
mentioned I had about fifteen of the 
larvae, all of which were taken on a large 
tea tree {Lycium barbarum), growing in 
the front of the Hotel at Beachley, on 
the river Severn, near Chepstow. These 
larvae varied much in colour; one was of 
a most beautiful yellow, others of different 
tints of green, and three or four of brown 
or bistre colour. Although they were 
carefully attended to, many of them died 
either in the larva or pupa state, as is 
well known to be the case by most 
persons who have endeavoured to rear 
them to maturity. I have specimens of 
the perfect insect produced in July, 
August, September and October. It 
appears to prefer resting in large man- 
sions, &c. : I possess a fine specimen 
taken in Troy House, near Monmouth, 
one of the seals of the Duke of Beaufort ; 
another in a large church at Newport; 
another in a railway station, &c. Perhaps 
no class of men have a better opportunity 
(if they would but use it) of observing 
or collecting insects than gardeners and 
agriculturists ; yet I have always found 
them to be the most ignorant on the 
subject. A gardener once brought me 
the larva of Arctia Caja, which he called 
“a very great curiosity;” another, the 
chrysalis of Pieris Brassicce, as the “ most 
cu’rus grub that ever he seed,” &c. ; and 
about a week since I saw a very fine 
larva of Atropos, found by a highly re- 
spectable man, in his garden near this 
place, who had not the least idea what 
it was, and enquired if it was a locust! 
— Thomas Parry, Bank, Merthyr. 
Dasycampa Rubiginea and Ennoinos 
Fuscantaria . — In the course of last 
month I bred four specimens of D. rubi- 
ginea, from eggs laid in a pill-box by a 
female, taken at sallows near Marlow, last 
spring. The larva, when full fed, is re- 
markably cjlindrical, and tapering to- 
wards the head; the colour is a dark 
olivaceous-hvov/n (not a yellowish brown) ; 
the hair is exceedingly fine, and shines 
like gold in the sun, and is confined to 
the sides, reminding one of the larva of 
A. megacephala, so that it appears almost 
a naked larva ; the blackish spots on the 
back appear, at first sight, circular, but 
on examination are more nearly square. 
