COLBOPTERA. 305 



commoner Ibrms. Early in ]\Iarcli, when the lonijfcr clays enabled nie 

 to i^'et a little further afield in my operations, J worked the mossy 

 banks of the Black Pond at Esher ; here a<,'ain ] found beetles in plenty, 

 and a few good ones — Actobius cineraNcens, Grav., was in tlie utnujst 

 profusion, I'hihynthm nii/rita, Nord., turned up aj^ain, one specimen 

 only, Lathrobium terminatum, Grav., the unspotted variety of this 

 insect was taken by Mr. 11. J)onisthorpe while working with me on 

 AVimbledou Common for C. <ilaberntmuii, Herl)st, t'l/i'lion rariohilis, 

 Thunb., (H(>}ilinn)i jiireuin, Gyll, Dn/a.ris fosmlata, Reich., Stilirus 

 (jrnicnliitus, p]r., t'j/filus rariiix^ F., Anisostii-ta l\)-/mnctat(i, h., and several 

 species of St(')u, of which the one worth recording is Stoms mdanarius, 

 8te])h., which Avas abundant, and was one of the most interesting captures. 

 Both in this locality and in Richmond Park I came across hybernating 

 s})ecimens of y>f>;((/r/</<'; in the Park, Donacia vcrsiadora, Brahm., a 

 species 1 had not found there in the summer, at Esher they were mostly 

 D. scricca, L. Though moss-collecting is frequently very cold work, 

 and .sometimes very disa|)})ointing, still my own experience is that it 

 usually well repays the time spent on it, and when you do find a good 

 beetle you generally find a nice series of it. Moreover, it entices one 

 out in Avinter to get the exercise so badly needed by those working 

 during the day in the fogs and dark dreary surroundings of London. — 

 (Prof.) T. Hudson Beare, B.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.E.S. 



HVDATICUS TRANSVERSALIS JN THE SOUTH-WEST OF EXOLANI). — 



During the meeting of the British Association, at Bristol (Sej)- 

 tember 7th to l-ith), I got an hour or two off from official duties one 

 afternoon, which I devoted to collecting. I tried the sandhills lying 

 between Westou-su})er-Mare and Bridgewater, on the coast of the 

 Bristol Channel, Ijut the long drought had ))urnt everything up, and a 

 strong hot wind raising clouds of sand, made collecting very unpleasant 

 and quite unprofitable. Just before starting back I came across a 

 little pool lying in a hollow between high sandhills. I saw it was 

 tenanted, but had no water-net ; however, by patiently watching till 

 the beetles rose to the surface for air, I managed to scoop out a few 

 with my hand. Acilim sulrattis, L., and Af/abits r/ialconntiis, Panz., were 

 common, and came up frequently, but another which I saw was diflerent 

 from either of these, and gave me some trouble to land; when secured 

 1 rec(.)gnised it at once to be Ih/daticm transversalis, Berg. I secured, 

 however, only the one, the insects after a time coming up always out 

 of reach. 1 see that Canon Fowler, in his ( '(dcaptcra of the Hritislt Islands, 

 vol. i., p. 207, (pieries the I)ev(mshire record for this insect. Il»elieve it 

 was taken in numbers in the same neigl^ourhood as the above l)y Mr. 

 B. Rye, in 18i)(3, so that evidently it does occur regularly in the south- 

 west of England, and probably the old Devonshire record is correct. — 

 Ibid. 



^^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Eggs of Lepidoptkra. — Gonepteryx cleopatra. — The egg of Gonep- 

 Wri/.i- deopatra is of the brightest green when freshly laid, becoming 

 paler yellowish in a day or so. It is a long, spindle-shaped 0'2.v^, 

 like that of G. rhamni, rarely quite symmetrical, and usually 

 tlattened more on one side than the other, a character connnonly 

 observed in eggs of Cr. /"/(rt"uit. There are 10 (not 12, as stated ante 



