The Scottish Naturalist. 215 



stood. Both sexes of Acherontia can produce the sound, I believe. In the 

 genus Setina, " two large tympaniform vesicles, situated in the pectoral region/ 

 have been noticed by A. Guenee {vide the translation — in the Ent. Mon. Mag., 

 i. 223, — of a paper by this author in the Annates de la Soctite" Entomologique de 

 France, ^me sdrie, ^me tome, 1864, yne trimestre). These are much more de- 

 veloped in the male than in the female, and give rise to a sound like the ticking 

 of a watch. M. Guenee having shown that there are no external organs that 

 can act upon the vesicles, proceeds to say, "it is evidently in the interior of the 

 drum that the bow, or rather the clapper, which produces the sound must work ; 

 for, if we may judge from its nature, it will be produced by percussion, rather than 

 by friction. If we open the vesicle, we see that it is separated into two parts by 

 a membranous division ; the right cavity is absolutely empty ; the left, deeper, 

 it is true, and more difficult to explore, appears to me, however, to contain no 

 particular organ, and, in any case, no body that is able to be used as a hammer. 

 One must then renounce the supposition of a percussive body. There remains 

 the action of the air ; and for my part, without asserting anything, this is the 

 mechanism which appears to me the most probable. The membrane which 

 covers the apparatus is thin and flexible, and at the same time, of the consis- 

 tence of talc or parchment ; one is able to bend it at pleasure, and as soon as 

 the pressure placed upon it ceases, it resumes its oiiginal position with elasticity. 

 It is then, I think, by rumpling (froisscment J that the sound is produced. It 

 may be that the insect, contracting its pectoral organs, bends and unbends the 

 membrane alternately ; it may be, which appears to me the most probable, that 

 it is endowed with the means of causing momentary emptiness — at any rate, 

 partially — in the cavity of the apparatus, by inhaling a portion of the air that it 

 contains, which being made to re-enter the membrane, has the effect of inflating 

 it anew by a sudden expiration. Every one is able, as we know, to cause with 

 the mouth these two opposite movements in a dry bladder, and to produce, by 

 this means, a dry and piercing noise, quite analogous to that of the Setina. 1 

 leave these suppositions to the reflection of entomologists." 



I may note that the green colour of Hylophila appears to be soluble in 

 alcohol.— F. Buchanan White. May, 1872. 



A second Scottish locality for Antic'ea sinuata.— I captured last year, 

 in this neighbourhood, a specimen of Anticlea sinuata. This, I suppose, is the 

 second Scottish specimen that has been taken of this pretty little moth, the first 

 having been found {Sc. Nat. i. 42) in Forfarshire. — T. Marshall, Stanley. 

 May, 1872. 



Capture of Ophiodes luraris — On the 16th of May I had sent me a 

 specimen of Ophiodes lunatis, which was taken at rest on the shop window of 

 Miss Oswald, fruiterer, St. John Street. It appeared to have newly emerged 

 from the pupa, and, with the exception of being slightly crippled in one of the 

 hind-wings, was otherwise in pretty fair condition. There is a probability of its 

 having been brought into this country along with some fruits or vegetables, as 

 at this season of the year a great many young vegetables are imported. As far 

 as I am aware, this is the first time this species has been taken in Perthshire ; 

 so I thought it worth recording in your journal. —John Stewart, St. John 

 Street, Perth. [We fear that Mr. Stewart's suggestion of the importation of 

 this specimen is rendered too probable by the place where it was found. 

 Though common in central and southern Europe, but very few British speci- 

 mens are known— one taken in Hampshire, and one or two at Killarney. It 

 has not been reported from Scotland before. — Editor.] 



