192 SUMMARY OF CUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



and usually destroys the growing point. The moths emerge after 

 pupation about the end of July and beginning of August. The eggs 

 are laid in August on the under sides of holly leaves ; the larvae hatch 

 out in late April or early May of the following year, and proceed at 

 once to the apices of the shoots to feed on the young leaves of the 

 opening buds. Four moults take place. During the third and fourth 

 instars the larvas protect themselves when feeding by fastening the 

 leaves together by a silken webbing, which prevents the buds from 

 unfolding. Under this cover the larva devours the youngest leaves and 

 often gnaws the growing point. The caterpillar is full fed about the 

 end of June or beginning of July. About the same time the surviving 

 leaves break the webbing and the apex of the shoot becomes exposed. 

 The caterpillar seeks a retreat lower down, and after the fourth moult 

 passes into the pupal state about a week after it has ceased to feed. 

 The moths emerge in two to three weeks. Nicotine spray was very 

 effective. 



Dipterous Parasite in Terrestrial Isopods.* — W. R. Thompson 

 found in ForcelUo scaber and Oniscus asellus, two common wood-lice, 

 the larva3 of a fly, Fh7/to mdanocephala, of which three stages are 

 described. The first stage is elongated, covered with minute chitinous 

 plates, with very long antennary organ, with well-developed sensory 

 structures, with a very remarkable bucco-pharyngeal armature. The 

 second stage is colourless, with reduced sensory structures and antennary 

 organ, with an ordinary form of bucco-pharyngeal armature. The 

 third stage has a two-jointed bucco-pharyngeal apparatus, and is amphi- 

 pneustic, the two preceding stages being metapneustic. The larva 

 castrates its female hosts at least. It probably enters the wood-louse 

 towards autumn ; the fly emerges in early summer. 



Mutations in Drosophila busckii.f — Don C. Warren reports the 

 occurrence of two mutations in eye colour — " red eye " and " chocolate 

 eye "— in D. busckii, apparently the first mutations that liave occurred 

 in this species. This is the eighth species of Drosophila in which 

 mutations have been recorded. The " red eye " acts as a non-sex-linked 

 recessive character, with the red class falling a little short. The same' 

 is true of the " chocolate eye," but the chocolate class falls considerably 

 below expectation. 



Bionomics of the Buffalo-fly (Lyperosia exigua de Meijere).J— 

 Gr. F. Hill gives an account of the habits and life-history of Lyperosia 

 exigua de Meijere, known to stock-owners in the northern territory of 

 Australia as the Buffalo-fly. Though it is less voracious and causes less 

 loss of blood than the larger flies of the genera Tabanus and Silvius it is 

 a more formidable pest because of the great number of individuals of 

 the species and the longer period of its seasonal occurrence. Unlike the 

 larger blood-sucking flies, too, Lyperosia attacks abraded surfaces, and 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxx. (1917) pp. 785-8 (7 figs.). 

 + Amer. Nat., 11. (1917) pp. 699-703. 

 [ X Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., xli. (1916) pp. 763-8 (1 pL). 



