ACTIAS LUNA

Extract

on 24th May Mr. Lachlan Gibb took a female, which he left alive to get eggs, a number of which were laid between the 25th and 29th. On the 14th June the eggs were hatching, and the larvæ were offered butternut leaves, which they eat readily, and matured very rapidly. About the 27th of the month, Mr. Gibb kindly gave me four of these larvæ which were then apparently more than half grown. They moulted once only, so far as my observations went, after I received them, and on 12th July three spun their cocoons, the fourth doing this on the 16th. Early in August Mr.Gibb asked me to take charge of his cocoons, and keep them with mine, as giving a better opportunity of getting another lot of eggs next season, and on 20th August I was surprised to find that one of Mr. Gibb's cocoons had disclosed the imago, a ♀.