276 [December, 



The food-plant of Apion filirostre, Kirhy. — As far us I can discover tlic food- 

 plant of this species lias never been definitely ascertained. This summer it occurred 

 to me on several occasions on Medicago lupuUna, fairly commonly, near Westhide 

 in Herefordshire. Since writing this note I have hoard from Mr. II. Doll man that 

 he has quite independently made the same discovery at Ditchlin<^, Sussex.— J. R. 

 LE 13. ToMLiN, Stoneley, Reading : November oth, 1907. 



Further experiinenl-s in the breeding of Ahraxan grossutariata, var. varleyata. — 

 In the Ent. Mo. Mag. of January this year, p. 12, I detailed the results of a pairing 

 oi Abraxas grossularl.ata var. varleyata, the imagines from the brood being all 

 varleyata. SufBce it to say that the produce again this year from pure pairings 

 from those moths showed no trace of anything but varleyata. I3tit now I have to 

 relate a curious experience. In the 1DJ6 brood of larvae were several which were 

 evidently weak and grew slowly, some of them eventually dying ; one, however, 

 managed to pupate when still small, but a considerable time after the others had 

 spun up, and in due time produced a belated and very small female. I had been 

 anxious to obtain a pairing between varleyata and a wild typical moth, but as the 

 indoor fed larvoe had produced moths a month before the wild ones were out, I had 

 up to this time been quite unable to do it. After keeping this last female alive, 

 however, for some ten days, I bred a very ordinary male from wild larva;, with which 

 the small varleyata $ at once paired. She had only strength enough to deposit 

 about a score eggs, and then at once died. From these few eggs seventeen larvK were 

 got safely through the winter, but in the early spring two were lost, and when full 

 grown I accidentally killed a very large one, which would undoubtedly have pro- 

 duced a ? moth. From the fourteen pupse as many perfect insects were bred, the 

 nine males all emerging first, followed by the five females. All as regards markings 

 were of the ordinary type of the species, but one (a <?) had a very pretty yellow 

 ground colour. Of varleyata there was not the slightest trace in any specimen, 

 which seems extraordinary when one considers that the tendency of varleyata to 

 produce its own form is so strong, that even in a pairing of the first generation no 

 trace of any other form is pi'oduced. I may add, too, tliat the fourteen specimens 

 were exceptionally large, half as big again as the c? parent, and probably three times 

 the size of the diminutive female parent. No doubt the result will be regarded by 

 those who believe in Mendelism as further evidence of the theory ; a theory, how- 

 ever, in which, so far as Lepidoptera are concerned, I have little faith myself, because 

 this is, I think, the only one of my scores of experiments with many species which 

 has supported it, the results usually having been directly opposite. I am willing to 

 admit that in most of my experiments the respective parents had all come from the 

 same localities, where there was perhaps the possibility of their ancestors having 

 influenced the progeny; whereas, in the case just detailed, the larva wliich produced 

 the J gros.iulariata I brought from Bempton, on the Yorkshire coast, wliere in all 

 probability varleyata I'lever has occurred, and where indeed the species seems very 

 constant to type. I am, of course, continuing the experiments, and hope to I'ecord 

 further results next year.— Gko. T. Pokeitt, Edgerton, lluddersfield : October 

 I8th, 1907. 



Heriades truncorum, Linn., near Cobham, Surrey. — I am glad to be able to 



