i^is.j 239 



scientist would ever accept the few words as published in the " Ent. Record " 

 as a description) the specimen which Mr. Newman bred ; it had only the 

 upper wings all black, the lower wings still retaining the white basal mark, 

 thoixgh reduced in extent, as was also the case in my own similar specimen. 

 The amount and shape of the white in the forewings of varleyata varies 

 infinitely in both wild and bred specimens. Very often it is merely a narrow 

 irregular band, and frequently reaches only half way or less through the wing 

 from the inner margin ; in some specimens it consists of only a white spot on 

 the edge of the inner margin, whilst in two specimens I possess it is merely a 

 short thread-like streak from the inner margin and extending only a third of the 

 distance across the wings. It only needs the obliteration of this short thread- 

 like mark, the remnant of the colour of the ordinary type of the species still 

 left, to produce Mr. Newman's form ; and I contend that all of these forms 

 still come under the designation var. varleyata, and no one who knows the forms 

 would mistake them for anything else. From my experience in breeding 

 varleyata, and it is not small, I am qxiite certain that the form I have named 

 nigra could never be bred from any of them, and it is equally sure that nigra 

 would never produce varleyata. The two forms are quite distinct races of the 

 species, and the black forms of the two races are quite different in appearance. 

 Mr. Raynor's note amply justifies ray adoption of the name to one definite form, 

 including in it a range of variation in the tint of the black, which we all admit 

 in similar named varietal forms. — Geo. T. Porritt.] 



The food-plant of the larva f Erebia hlandina, F. (eethiops. Stand.). — 

 Mr. L. G. Esson has recently been collecting in a locality in Scotland where this 

 insect is exti-eniely common. At my reqviest he watched a female deposit, dug 

 up the plant with the ova attached to it and sent the same to me. The grass 

 proves to be Molinia cserulea. I believe that the food-plant of the larva of this 

 insect in a wild state has not yet been recorded. — N. Charles Rothschild, 

 Arundel House, Kensington Palace Gardens, W. : September, 1912. 



The food-plant of the larva of Erebia epiphron. — Mr. H. A. Beadle of 

 Keswick, very kindly supplied some living larvae of this butterfly after hiber- 

 nation, which he found in the early sj^ring of this year. To establish with 

 certainty the food-plant, Mr. Beadle very carefully marked the plants on which he 

 found these larvae feeding, and when the grasses in question were in flower, dug 

 them up. They are all Nardus striata, which can now be deflnitely stated 

 to be the food-plant of this insect in a wild state. — N. Charles Rothschild : 

 September, 1912. 



Pentatoma {Tropicoris) riifipes, L., and caterpillars. — As an imago, this 

 Hemipteron has, for the last 130 years, been credited with carnivorous habits. 

 De Geer says it wanders over the foliage of trees, seeking caterpillars to suck, 

 and several observers since his time have confirmed this statement. Wishing 

 to determine whether the larva is characterized by a similar liabit, I enclosed a 

 specimen in its last instar, which I found on hawthorn in Epping Forest on 

 Jvine 15th, in a box with a twig of the host-plant, and a well grown Orthosid 



