stated, that a greater number of females than of males die under confinement in the cocoons. He adds that with certain species one sex seems to preponderate over the other during certain years. Of direct observations on the sexes of Lepidoptera, reared either from eggs or caterpillars, I have received only the few following cases:— ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Males. | Females. The Rev. J. Hellins[400] of Exeter reared, during | 1868, imagos of 73 species, which consisted of 153 | 137 | Mr. Albert Jones of Eltham reared, during 1868, | imagos of 9 species, which, consisted of 159 | 126 | During 1869 he reared imagos from 4 species, | consisting of 114 | 112 | Mr. Buckler of Emsworth, Hants, during 1869, | reared imagos from 74 species, consisting of 180 | 169 | Dr. Wallace of Colchester reared from one brood | of Bombyx cynthia 52 | 48 | Dr. Wallace raised, from cocoons of Bombyx | Pernyi sent from China, during 1869 224 | 123 | Dr. Wallace raised, during 1868 and 1869, | from two lots of cocoons of Bombyx yamamai 52 | 46 ———————+—————— Total 934 | 761 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————+————————— So that in these eight lots of cocoons and eggs, males were produced in excess. Taken together the proportion of males is as 122.7 to 100 females. But the numbers are hardly large enough to be trustworthy. On the whole, from the above various sources of evidence, all pointing to the same direction, I infer that with most species of Lepidoptera, the males in the imago state generally exceed the females in number, whatever the proportions may be at their first emergence from the egg.