1867.] 



15 



became comparatively lethargic, and where the bushes could be beaten over an 

 umbrella they came out in numbers into it. Other bushes were searched, and the 

 insects were found settled on the twigs all over the bush, from close to the ground 

 (and even among the grass and rubbish under the bushes) to the topmost twigs. 

 From one particular hawthorn— a small one too— we must have boxed quite a 

 hundred specimens, probably more. With them occurred Chatopteryx villosa in 

 considerable numbers, and also a few Anabolia nervosa, but the last was evidently 

 nearly over. 



The part of the river on which H. guttatipennis occurs in such profusion is 

 most ordinary in appearance, with no aquatic plants growing in it, and flowing 

 through meadows of grass, &c., and with only a few trees and bushes on its banks. 

 On one side (the side we alone worked), at a short distance from the water, a low 

 hawthorn hedge borders the footpath, and nearer the water a few isolated hawthorn 

 and alder bushes. The hawthorns seemed to be the greatest attraction to the Tri- 

 choptera, probably, however, because they afforded the best shelter. Both Mr. Dennis 

 and myself had soon boxed as many specimens as we felt disposed to set, and we left 

 the ground about 3.30 p.m. 



Some of my captures were not killed for several days, and on November 1st I 

 was greatly astonished to find in one of the boxes a male H. guttatipennis paired 

 with a female C. villosa ; the pairing lasted to ray knowledge for some hours, and 

 probably for a still considerably longer period. The time when H. guttatipennis is 

 "out" is apparently from the middle of October to the middle of November.— Geo. 

 T. POERITT, Crosland Hall, Huddersfield : November 11th, 1896. 



Female of Megalocercea erratica dimorphic— Mr. W. Chaney, of Woodside, 

 South Norwood, has lately sent me some S and ? examples of a Jfe^aZocer^a, calling 

 my attention to the short legs and antennse of the females, and pointing out that 

 although the specimens of this sex looked very different from those of erratica, the 

 males taken in the same locality were apparently identical with the typical form of 

 that species. Had I received the females only, I should certainly have thought they 

 were specifically distinct. The basal joint of the antennae is very little longer than 

 the pronotura, the rest of the antennse is distinctly shorter than in the typical ? , 

 and all the legs are considerably shorter and stouter ; in colour this form agrees 

 with the var. ockracea, Fieb., but I cannot find that either Fieber or Keuter mentions 

 the shorter limbs as characteristic of the variety. The males taken with these 

 females are, as Mr. Chaney says, to all appearances typical erratica. The specimens 

 ■were found in a marshy place near Woodside on September 4.th, 1895 ; and Mr. 

 Chaney writes, " it was then just coming out commonly, many of the specimens 

 being immature ;" he also says that a day or two later his son brought him specimens 

 of the same form from the chalk hills near Caterham ; so that it would appear not 

 to be particular as to its style of locality. It is a form which I do not appear to 

 have met with myself, but it is one which might be easily overlooked in the field.— 

 Edward Saunders, St. Ann's, Woking : December Uh, 1896. 



Albinic aberration of Dichrorampha senectana, Gn.— On June 3rd of the present 

 year I was fortunate in taking on the Isle of Purbeck (Dorset) coast a beautiful 



