1877.] 69 



bablj many remaining in pupte until another summer at least. Such seems likely to 

 be the case with several in my possession, which though lively and apparently healthy 

 show no signs of producing the perfect insects. I have, however, secured enough 

 specimens of both species for those correspondents whom I was unable to supply 

 last year. 



Perhaps in a popular magazine I may venture to relate what happened — or 

 rather what did not happen — to me in pursuit of Dianthcecia ccesia, so as to give 

 some idea of the risk which the capture of this insect involves. The place which I 

 found very productive last summer (E. M. M., vol. xiii, p. 143), and naturally sought 

 again, is under a perpendicular, perhaps slightly overhanging, cliff of about 150 feet 

 in height : here the Silene maritima clothed the face of the rock, and the air was 

 heavy with the perfume of its flowers. One evening when I went as usual I found 

 the cliff had fallen, and, on the spot where I had stood a few hours previously without 

 a thought of danger, thousands of tons of rock were piled up in wild confusion. 



A spice of danger such as the chance of slipping on a ledge of rock which 

 would result in a drop into 20 feet of water, perhaps adds zest to the pleasure of 

 hunting this rock-frequenting moth ; but the sudden fall of the cliff itself is a 

 serious possibihty. 



I have sometimes stopped to watch a beetle crossing the pathway in momentary 

 danger of death from the foot of each passer, and admired his coolness, sometimes 

 helped him out of trouble, sometimes idly waited to see would he run the gauntlet 

 safely, meanwhile pondering on his ignorance of the peril which beset him and on 

 the possibility that we ourselves were in equal danger from unseen destroyers every 

 moment of our lives : surely death's heavy foot trod very near me that day. The 

 spot commands a fine view of Douglas Bay, across which the line of English coast 

 some 60 miles away fringed with mountains is seen. As I turned away from the 

 fallen cliff a rainbow spanned the eastern sky, a mighty painted arch apparently 

 stretching from Snowdon to Helvellyn. What a lovely savage our great mother 

 Nature is. One moment we are awestruck at the reckless use she makes of her 

 gigantic strength, and the next won by the matchless beauty of her smde. 



Eupithecia pulchellata is only now appearing, and the foxgloves in which it will 

 expect to lay its eggs are mostly out of flower — the larvsc were full-grown last year 

 on loth July. 



Sesia philanthiformis has nearly disappeared from the cliffs of Douglas Bay, on 

 which it used a few years ago to be found in great profusion, at least it can only be had 

 by repeating the feat of a well-known entomologist who is said to have swam off to 

 detached rocks where it abounded with his pill-boxes in his mouth, and returned 

 triumphant. I have obtained some on the west coast of the island where it has 

 escaped destruction by being a little out of the track of the Easter and Whitsuntide 

 collectors. 



It is sad to think of the reckless extermination of this local insect ; the pupa? 

 have been collected and carried away by the hamperful — cui bono ? I suppose that 

 each of our thousand and one Lepidopterists may have a full row of this poor little 

 moth, although it presents no variation of form or colour, and a pair or two answer 

 every scientific purpose. — Edwin Biechall, Douglas, Isle of Man : July l^tk, 1877. 



2iew British Ant, Ponera ochracea 1 — I have taken in the earth in a conservatory 

 here several worker ants which may perhaps turn out to be a new species of Ponera. 

 Wiien first I discovered the colony I mistook it for P. contracta, which was first 

 detected some time ago by Prof. Westwood, but on forwarding specimens of my 

 insect to Mr. F. Smith, he informed me that it was not P. contracta, as that insect 

 has a punctured thorax, whereas in mine it is obliquely wrinkled, and is altogether a 



