12 r January, 



Records of Coleopterafor Herefordsldre and Shropshire wanted. — I should be 

 very much obliged if Entomologists who have collected Coleo2}tera in Herefordshire 

 or Shropshii'e would send me any records (of common or uncommon species) during 

 January for the Victoria County History. The late Mr. Blatch and Mr. Horner 

 took a good many interesting species in Shropshire, and Stephens recorded many 

 rare ones ; but Herefordshire appears to have been practically unworked, although it 

 is probably exceedingly rich in this Order. — W. W. Fowler, Earlcy Vicai-age, 

 fieading : December 18th, 1906. 



A neio locality for Panags^us crux-major, L. — It may interest your readers to 

 know that Mr. F. Palin took a specimen of Panagaeus crux-major at the village 

 of Ashton, near Oundle, on November 10th last. — N. Charles Rothschild, 

 Tring: December \8th, 1906. 



Hereditary and Sexual dimorphism in Abraxas grossulariata, var. varleyala. — • 

 At the end of June last year I was fortunate enough to obtain a pairing from fine 

 specimens of the variety varleyala of Abraxas grossulariata, and was of course ex- 

 trsmely interested to see what the result in the progeny would be. Exceptional 

 care was taken of the brood of larvae, and consequently the losses from deaths 

 during the winter were very few. All the moths (a considerable brood) emerged 

 dui'ing June of this year, and every specimen, without a single exception, was of the 

 extreme form of varleyala. 1 had of course never anticipated such a result, for it 

 was altogether contrary to my previous somewhat extensive experience in breeding 

 melanic forms of other species. As a rule, in captivity, it has taken three genera- 

 tions to produce an almost entirely melanic race, and even then there have almost 

 always been a few reversions to the type. But in the case of varleyala, although 

 the parents were bred from wild larvae collected from gardens in this neighbourhood, 

 the assumed first generation produced a brood as absolutely uniform as could occur 

 in the most constant of true species. I have written " assumed first generation " 

 because the variety is so excessively rare in a wild state that it is highly improbable 

 that both the parents of my last year's moths were of the variety, and possibly 

 neither of them were. 



Another interesting fact revealed by the brood was that the variety is sexually 

 dimorphic. Probably none of us had expected such a thing in Abraxas grossulariata, 

 and even when the first dozen or fourteen moths emerged, all males, and possessing 

 more or less of the white rays on the hind- wings, it did not occur to uie that the 

 rays were a male characteristic. But when the females began to emerge, and showed 

 no trace of any white rays, the fact was of course apparent, and was at once con- 

 firmed by an examination of the seven specimens in my cabinet series of the moth, 

 the three males being rayed, and the four females withoul rays. These white rays 

 give a very pretty effect to the males, and are generally present on the hind-wings 

 only, and usually varying in number from two to five, although I possess two speci- 

 mens in which there is only one, and then merely a white spot ; and one single male 

 only out of the entire brood shows no trace of a white ray. Occasionally the while 

 rays extend to the fore-wings, but usually not more than two on each wing, though 

 I have one very beautiful example, bred in 1905 from a wild larva, which has six 

 rays on each fore-wing, and seven and six respectively on the hind-wings. — Geo. T. 

 POEEITT, Edgerton, Huddersfield : December lllh, 1906. 



