Separate Boxes Research Articles

ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES

Several years ago it occurred to me that a knowledge of the earlier stages in the lives of some of our Diurnal Lepidoptera might possibly be arrived at by obtaining eggs from impregnated females in captivity. My experiments began with the Hesperidæ as offering the greatest probability of success. As many females as could be procured (beaten ones preferred, as the likelihood of their impregnation was greater) were confined in separate boxes some with glass tops admitting right. others darkened. My success was greater than I had anticipated, but none attended the use of boxes where much light was admitted. whether the failure in the latter case was really due to the admission of light, I am not prepared to say ; the number of glass-covered boxes used was not proportionally large nor was their use long continued.

I. On the growth of land shells

Perhaps the following observations on the growth of land shells may contain sufficient information to prove interesting to the Royal Society. Before describing them, however, a few introductory remarks will be necessary. Every individual experimented upon has been kept in confinement since the day it was hatched. Each species has been placed in a separate box (filled with soil to the depth of three inches), and care has been taken to feed the Mollusca every other day, the food chiefly consisting of the leaves of the lettuce and cabbage.