234 [March, 



Note? on Pyrameis Tameamea. — By the kindness of the Rev. T. Blackburn, I 

 have lately received a good series of Pi/rameis Tameamea. Tliis fine insect has been 

 very ill-used by entomologists. In the first place, Mr. Blackburn tells me, that the 

 name should have been Ka-mh-ha-mh-ha, the vowels pronounced after the continental 

 style and the h's strongly aspirated and almost guttural. The word means " The 

 'lonely one," Ka, or, in some dialects, Ta, being the definite article. Eschscholtzj 

 the original describer, called it Tameamea (OTea=:" thing!"). Mr. Kirby, misled 

 perhaps by Kotzebue's spelling in the body of his work and not knowing the ety- 

 mology of the name, added an m, so it stands in his Catalogue as Tammeamea, a 

 word of no meaning. Then the figure of the upper-side in Kotzebue, while correctly 

 enough coloured, is very coarsely drawn, and in these days of hair-splitting might 

 well pass for that of some other species. On the other hand, the figure in plate 25 

 of the " Genera," while drawn with Mr. Hewitson's usual correctness, has apparently 

 been coloured from such a faded specimen as to be at first sight unrecognisable. The 

 figure of the under-side in Kotzebue is tolerably correct for some specimens ; in 

 others the colour is duller and more uniform, with the whitish median fascia, and 

 also the pale pinkish ante-marginal one, quite obsolete ; in others, one or two of the 

 irregular spots of the median fascia are very distinct and the rest of the markings 

 nearly sunk in the ground colour ; again, the ground colour instead of being a dull 

 olivaceous green is sometimes what might be called an olivaceous-ochreous : in these 

 last, one can, however, hardly say that there is any ground colour, the shades 

 are so numerous and intricate as to be difficult to depict and impossible to describe. 

 The olivaceous patch on the apical portion of the imder-side of the fore-wing varies 

 also in shade, conforming to that of the hind-wing. This patch and the whole of 

 the hind-wing have always a more or less silky lustre in fresh specimens. The only 

 sexual difference is that the female appears to be usually the larger. — N. C. Tuely, 

 Mortimer Lodge, Wimbledon Park : February Wth, 1878. 



"Notes on the occurrence of Notodonta iicolora in Enyland. — On tlie 10th June, 

 1865, 1 beat one example out of birch (when beating for Cohoptera), into an um- 

 brella net ; it is now in the collection of Mr. Barrett. I told Mr. Charlton, who was 

 with me at the time in Burnt Wood, Staffordshire, and we immediately got a long 

 stick and commenced beating in earnest. Mr. Charlton beat two (in copula) out of 

 birch ; three others were captured on the wing, two by me and one by Mr. Charlton, 

 from 4 p.m. till dusk. They remind one of Spilosoma menfkrasti in their mode of 

 flight. We decided to keep the females alive for the purpose of obtaining ova ; 

 they were placed in a perforated zinc box lined with newspaper : the one we obtained 

 in copula loose, the others pinned ; they were all in my care. After we arrived home 

 I transferred the un-pinned female to a paper bag, in which I had previously put a 

 few birch leaves. I obtained 186 eggs the following week ; they are green and 

 hemispherical, changing to almost chocolate in the centre previously to the emergence 

 of the larvae. I fed the larvae on birch, and 22 changed to pupse, and 7 perfect 

 insects came out the following season, at separate times ; 15 pupa) were alive until 

 1867, but never emerged. The larva is greedj, whitish on the back, with several 

 yellow lines, the spiracular line interrupted ; it much resembles that of N. chaonia. 

 My friend, Mr. Joseph Sidebotharii saw the larvaj several times, and the late Mr. 

 Doublcclay was aware that I was feeding the specie^ The pupse were enclosed in 



