29 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY. 
NOTES ON SPILOSOMA LUBRICIPEDA. 
(Read Feb. 21st, 1899, by Mr. A. W. MERA). 
In reading a few notes on Spilosotna lubricipeda, I am going over 
ground that has already been well trodden, but as I have recently 
hred some interesting forms of the species, both from Lincolnshire, 
and also from the strain originally started by Mr. Harrison, of 
Barnsley, I may be able to offer a few remarks of some interest. It 
would be useless to attempt any description of a larva so well known 
to all of us, but perhaps it would be as well to notice a phase 
connected with the egg of this insect when breeding it in for a 
generation or two ; and that is, the number of eggs that do not hatch 
although apparently fertile. The whole batch of eggs will change 
colour, and will have every appearance of hatching, but only perhaps 
a third of the young larva' will escape from the shell. This is 
doubtless owing to general debility through breeding in, and as far as 
the breeder is concerned it is much more satisfactory for the weakness 
to show itself in that stage than in any other. I have always found 
that when once the larvae commence to feed they are then easy to 
rear. 
Although .S', lubricipeda is one of onr commonest insects in the 
south of England, its range north is not so great as its congener S. 
mentliastn, for apparently it is rarely taken even in the south of 
Scotland. I am told by Air. Authur Horne, of Aberdeen, who, as 
most of us know, is one of our most active Scotch lepidopterists, that 
he has never taken the insect in the north or east of Scotland, 
nor in fact does he ever remember seeing a Scotch specimen. Air. J. 
J. F. X. King, of Glasgow, who has compiled a list of the lepidoptera 
of south-west Scotland, tells me that formerly it was taken in the 
counties of Bute and Ayrshire, but has not been recorded for some 
years pasc. Even in the extreme north of England its numbers 
appear to diminish, as the late Air. J. Finlay called it rare at Alorpeth. 
It occurs in the north-west of Ireland, where I believe it is not rare. 
But the great interest in the species is caused by its wide range of 
variation, which until recent years had passed comparatively unnoticed. 
As most of us know there are three distinctly specialised forms of 
varieties which have been named radiata or zatima, eboraci and fasciata, 
and it appears that the counties producing these varieties are pretty- 
well limited to Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. 
The origin of our Yorkshire radiata from Air. Harrison’s stock has 
been a bone of contention to many, and doubtless the beautiful forms 
of radiata which are now so often to be seen in our cabinets, are the 
