[July, 

 160 



Papilio Machaon at Sythe, Kent-It may be of interest to your readers to 

 know that on Trinity Sunday, June 10th, shortly after 6 p.m., I captured m our back 

 garden at Hythe, Kent, a specimen of the swallow-tailed butterfly ( Papiho Machaon) 

 which persisted in settling on a tuft of Phlox, right in front of us. Hythe is I 

 suppose, twenty-two miles from France, and the wind was S. and warm. The 

 Warren, Folkestone, is seven miles off, and Romney Marsh is one mile, though i 

 have never noticed many butterflies of any kind there. I may add that as I had no 

 proper means of securing the insect, I was relieved when it escaped and flew off 

 iowards the Marsh.-W. H. Mandt, 28, Paternoster Row, London : June ISth, 1 JUU. 

 [From the locality this example may have been a casual immigrant, and from 

 that cause very interesting. Or it may have been bred from a pupa from one of our 

 own fens, and allowed to escape, either intentionally or accidentally.-EDS.] 



Deilephila livornica at St. Austell.-K specimen of this rare insect was taken 

 at Gorran, St. Austell. Cornwall, on the 3rd inst. It was sent for identification by 

 the Editor of the Agricultural Gazette to Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, LL.D., who 

 has very kindly given the specimen to me.-R. Newstead, Chester : May 23rd, 1900. 



CoUas Edusa, S(c., in South De.o«.-"What in the name of fortune is that?" 

 was the exclamation evoked by the unexpected sight of a pale tinted ? of C. Edusa 

 careering over a fallow field near the sea at Branscombe yesterday. Curiosity satisfied 

 by close inspection, I looked around for more, and within a quarter of an hour and 

 adistance of 300 yards, had seen half adozen,both $ and ?, all in prime condition. 

 There were also some Pyrameis cardui about, not in the least worn ; and one of them 

 was ovipositing on nettle ( Urtica dioica). Vanessa Atalanta began to be seen last 

 week in this neighbourhood.-A. E. Eaton, Woodlands, Seaton, Devon ; June 13<A, 

 1900. 



MutiUa europcBa and Polistes gaUica, Z.-In April, 1895, Dr. A. Chobaut told 

 me at Biskra that in France he had bred M. europcea from a nest of P. gaUica {cf. 

 ante p. 135), but without observing its transformations or habits in the larval 

 state.— Id. 



Notes on the habits of Ichneumon soUciiorius and Scolobates varipes in New 

 Zealand -On March 20th Mr. W. Bickerstaff, a local resident, called my attention 

 to numbers of " wasps " frequenting the castor oil plants {Ricinus communis) growing 

 in his garden. On visiting his beautiful gardens I found these stately plants in- 

 habited by considerable numbers of Ichneumon solicitorius and S. varipes. As the 

 castor oil plant is generally supposed to be shunned by insects, I was anxious to 

 ascertain what attracted the Ichneumons to them. I soon, however, detected that 

 they were busy feeding on the thin, transparent oily fluid secreted by the raised 

 glands situated near the base of the petiole close to the axils of the large peltate 

 leaves. When the insects alighted on the leaves they appeared to walk instinctively 

 along or down the petiole to the glands, the antennae meanwhile moving vigorously. 

 If the gland cups had been emptied by previous visitors the larger species (J. solici- 

 torius) would move up or down and around the main stem until a gland was met with 



