188 THE entomologist's record. 



England and Ireland. In the same number Mr. Joy announces another 

 species as new to Britain. In June, 1911, Mr. Harwood took a speci- 

 men of Malthixlca, sp., near Bishops Stortford. This has been identified 

 as M. crosaicornia, and has now been differentiated from its near ally 

 M. hrevicollis {nif/dlus). 



In the E)it. ]\In. Ma;/, for May, the Hon. N. C. Rothschild states 

 that in the collection of the late J. W. Tutt, among the British Cranibi 

 were five specimens of a Cranibua, taken at Deal in 1889, which ^re 

 C. UtharfiyrelluH, a species formerly considered as British. In the 

 same lot was a single specimen of C. polieUux, a sand-frequenting 

 species, taken at Deal in 1885. 



The Entnmolnijist for May contains among other things interesting 

 accounts of collecting in Corsica by G. H. Gurney, in Sicily by J. 

 Platt-Barrett, and Notes on British Orthoptera in 1913, by W. J. 

 Lucas. 



In a communication to the Bull. Sor. Eat. France, M. P. Chretien 

 describes three new species of Nepticiila. Two are attached to Labiatae, 

 the larva of A'', rosmarindla feeds upon the leaves of Ro.wiarinitH officinalis 

 and that of A'', tencriella feeds on Teucrium chawaednjs. The third 

 species, A^. zolliknff'olella, has a larva attached to the Composite, Zolli- 

 koferia nudicaulh, at Biskra, Algeria. The two first-named species 

 came from the Alpes Maritimes and I'Ardeche department respectively. 



The Natiiralist for May contains a very interesting record of the 

 persistent devastation of a Yorkshire wood by lepidopterous larvae 

 since the year 1910, made by Mr. B. Morley of Huddersfield. The 

 fittack commenced by the defoliation of the trees in 1910, caused by 

 the larvae of Pliuialia pedaria (pilosaria), Himera pennaria, Hybernia 

 defoliaiia, H. nHrantiaria, Oporabia diliitaria, Cheimatnbia boreata, (J. 

 bnniiata, and Tortri.r viridana, all of which species had been common 

 as imagines in 1909. There was a keen struggle for existence. By 

 1912 T. riridana was almost extinct, ('. boreata rapidly diminished and 

 was rare by 1912, 0. diliitaria was very scarce in 1913. In the present 

 year P. pedaria has become a rare insect. FI. pennaria was the next 

 to fail after abundance in the autumn of 1912. H. defoliaria and H. 

 anrantiaria swarmed in vast numbers, but the resultant larvfe in 1913 

 were reduced to such straits that they paid the penalty of over- 

 production and few survived. C. brmnata was the apparent winner in 

 the struggle for it was still as abundant as ever in the autumn of 1913. 

 Probablv the la,rvMe were reduced to cannabalism in which they often 

 indulge in the breeding cage when their food goes stale. 



In the Ent. Neirs for May, we read that Annette Frances Braun 

 has communicated a paper to the Joiirn. Acad. Nat. Sc, Philadelphia,- 

 on the " Evolution of Colour Pattern in the Microlepidopterous Genus 

 Lithocnlletis." One of the author's conclusions is stated that, " the 

 primitive colour pattern is a series of seven uniformly-coloured, pale, 

 yellow transverse bands, separated from one another by unpigmented 

 areas. . . . These bands, either in their primitive, or modified 

 shape, constitute the ground colour. Upon this ground colour a 

 second darker series of elements, the markings proper, also usually 

 transverse, are superimposed." As a further result of her studies she 

 considers that "the uniform yellowish groundcolour which suffuses 

 the wins: in the higher Lepidoptera. beginning at the base and 

 spreading distalwards, is the outcome of a phylogenetically older type 



