few which escape the winter emerge in April or very early May. 
This summer I had one case of almost phenomenally rapid transforma¬ 
tion, which is certainly worth putting on record. A female captured 
at Torquay on July 28th, this summer, laid eggs the next day. These 
hatched in four days, namely, on August 2nd, and the larvae were fed 
on flowers of clematis. The three moults of the most forward 
specimens took place on August 5th (three days), August 8tli (six 
days) and August 11th (nine days), and on August 16th—fourteen 
days from hatching, and five from final moult—they began going to 
earth. One imago emerged on August 80th, only 82 days from the 
deposition of the egg, and the rest of the pupae developed about the 
same time ; but no more imagines have appeared, and I am afraid the 
pupae have now dried up. The larva? are extremely easy to breed, 
and if the correct method of managing the pup* can be found, it 
would be recommendable to breed it largely from the egg; beaten 
larva?, so far as my experience goes, are somewhat liable to be 
ichneumoned, but 1 am unable to give the name or names of the 
species (singular or plural) which attack them. 
VARIATION in BROODS of AXYUA PUTRIS, CUCULLIA UMBRATICA, 
SPIL0S0MA URTICAE and MALAC0S0MA CASTRENSIS. 
(Head November 7th, 1899, by A. BACOT). 
Axylia putris. — These were reared from ova laid by a female 
captured in June, 1898, at Waxham, Norfolk. The larva? were fed 
on hop. Ninety-seven specimens emerged during the past summer 
(1899), mostly during June. The sex of these insects is rather difficult 
to determine, but after some little trouble 1 made out the respective 
numbers as follows : — 50 males = 52%, 47 females = 48%. Two speci¬ 
mens are crippled, both arc males. The variation of coloration and 
marking is exceedingly slight, and seems to consist only of minute 
difference of darker or lighter shading on the forewings. The variation 
as regards size is also of little moment. Only two specimens are 
worthy of note, one male and one female, both are deficient in respect 
of the darker shading of the wings, the female being rather* the paler 
of the two. Both are smaller than the majority of the brood, which 
suggests that this variation is due to malnutrition. 
C'ucullia umhratica. — This is a much smaller brood. Considerable 
mortality occurred during the larval period, and among the pupa? also, 
unless a considerable number are passing a second winter in this s'.age. 
Out of some 80 to 85 specimens bred 27 are available for examination, 
the remainder having either escaped or been ruined in breeding opera¬ 
tions. Ten out of the 27 are males ( = 87%), and 17 females (=68%,), in 
addition there is one cripple, of which l am unable to determine the sex. 
There is a well marked sexual dimorphism in this brood as regards 
the colour of the hindwings, and a less constant difference in the 
