Some Notes on the 
Butterflies, Moths their Eggs, 
OF WHICH 
PHOTOGRAPHS APPEAR IN 
THE FOREGOING PAGES . . 
BY 
A. E. TONGE, 
(Fellow of the Entomological Society of London). 
INTRODUCTORY. 
The eggs of Butterflies and Moths are very minute objects, varying 
in size from a tiny atom less than th of an inch in diameter, which 
would easily drop through a hole made by a pinprick, to about ^th 
of an inch across. 
When examined with a microscope they are found to be in 
most cases very beautiful objects, often decorated with boldly sculp- 
tured patterns of varying forms, and coloured with yellows, greens, 
or reds. Sometimes the colours are due to the little caterpillar inside 
showing through a semitransparent shell, and invariably a very 
marked change in the colouration takes place as the time for hatching 
approaches. 
They may be broadly divided into two groups “upright" and 
“flat,” the former comprising those species in which the micrcpyle 
is situated at a point approximately vertical to the surface on which 
the egg is laid, while in the latter it is at right angles. 
They may be laid singly or in large or small batches in all sorts of 
situations, from bark and twigs in the winter, to grass and leaves of 
whatever sort the resulting caterpillar will eat at other seasons, while 
some species appear to scatter them at random amongst suitable 
vegeiation. 
The duration of the egg stage varies from five or six days, to as 
much as nine months, according to the habit of the species, lasting 
longest of course in those which pass the winter as eggs. All the eggs 
illustrated in this little book are magnified to precisely the same 
extent, io diameters (or ioo times), so that it may be possible to com- 
pare the proportionate size of one species with another. The illustra- 
tions of the perfect insects are all natural size. 
The names are those given in Staudinger’s Catalogue (rtjoi) ; and 
though subject to modifications by the more recent work of 
Hampson, Prout, Tutt, etc., there is no later complete view of the 
nomenclature of Palearctic Lepidoptera. The English synonyms 
are those believed to be current, and agree generally with those 
given by Edward Newman (British Butterflies and Moths). The 
times of year given are generally those in which the photographs of 
the eggs were obtained. 
