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Show 1886.] MR. A. THOMSON'S REPORT ON THE INSECT-HOUSE. Nocturni. Smerinthus ocellatus. Bombyx quercus. - populi. *Hemileuca maia. tihae. Lasiocampa quercifolia. Sphinx liqustri. *Dipthera ludifica Deilephila eaphorbice. Endromis versicolor. * Flemaris marginalis. Saturnia carpini. Euchelia jacobceaj. Dicranura vinula. Callimorpha hera. *Clostera anachoreta. Arctia caja. Notodonta ziczac. Chelonia villica. Catocala fraxini. Liparis chrysorrhea. It will be noticed from the preceding list, that the three species European Papilio, viz.:-P. podalirius, P. alexanor, and P. machaon, have been exhibited, and that specimens of Papilio asterias, from N. America, were exhibited for the first time. Together with the pupae of this last-named species, I obtained some very small larvae (hybernating) of Limenitis disippus. They had spun up in small leaves, but after being in the warm Insect-House for a few days, they came out and commenced to feed very freely upon weeping willow ; they grew rapidly and ultimately produced some very fine imagos, some of which I have the honour to exhibit this evening. I again obtained by exchange some larvae of Aporia hippia, and I took the opportunity to get a coloured drawing made of the larvae, pupa, and imago of this little-known insect, which I now exhibit1. Of the American silk-producing Bombyces, Samia ceanothi was exhibited for the first time, and I succeeded in obtaining fertile ova from one pairing, and in due course the larvae ; but I regret to say that they all died. Of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th stages, I exhibit coloured drawings which Mr. F. W . Frohawk was good enough to make from the living larvae. The larvae in the first stage were black, similar to those of Samia cecropia. Although the pure-bred larvae died, some hybrids which I obtained from a pairing of a male Samia cecropia with a female S. ceanothi, throve remarkably well, and there are over 60 cocoons now in the Insect-House, from which the insects may be expected to emerge early in the coming spring. Early in the past season, I purchased about four dozen large pupae from South Africa, which had been stripped of whatever cocoon or other covering they had possessed, so that it was not possible to determine to what species they belonged ; it could only be seen that they were Bombyces of some kind. As will be seen by the list, examples of five species were obtained from them. They were very irregular in their appearance, the first emerging on May 7th, and the last on September 29th. I obtained a pairing of Gynanisa maia, but the larvae, I am sorry to say, died, although one fed, till it reached its third stage, on Laburnum. Good specimens of Anthercea tyrrhea, Fabr., are, I believe, rather scarce in collections. ' See Mr. Butler's paper, infra, p. 80. 1* |
