1901.) 127 



to whom I have spoken on the subject — the moth occurs here only in May and 

 June, seklom for into the hitter month, though in 1801 I took two specimens still 

 in fair condition as late as the 22nd. — William Eyans, 38, Morningside Park, 

 Edinburgli : March 10th, 1901. 



Dark aberration of Heliothls peltigera, Schijf. — From a larva on Ononis 

 arvensls, collected with others on the Isle of Purbeck coast in July, 1894,1 bred, on 

 the 13th of the following November, by far the darkest individual of TTeliothis 

 peltigera that I have ever seen. The fore-wings have tlie ground colour dull burnt- 

 umber, with the principal markings of the usual cliaracter, but rendered very in- 

 conspicuous by the uniform darkness of the ground colour. The hind-wings, also, 

 are exceptionally dark, the parts of them that are generally pale being clouded over 

 with fuscous. The specimen is a female, and has the fore-wings abnormally narrow, 

 their greatest breadth being 1 mm. less than in an ordinary specimen of the same 

 expanse, and the right hind-wing slightly crippled : it was the last to emerge, 

 the other imagines appearing from September 2nd to October 29th. — Eustace R. 

 Bankes, Norden, Corfe Castle : March 15th, 1901. 



Acanthopsyche opacella : correction of an error. — At Ent. Mo. Mag., p. 63 

 ante, last paragraph, I wrote, " this Tachinid has learnt on some other species, or on 

 Psychids generally, how to produce," &e. Absence from England prevented my 

 correcting the proof, hence the curious phraseology that appears. — T. A. Chapman, 

 Betula, Reigate: April, 1901. 



Observations on Sphecodes. — Referring to the most interesting review of the 

 state of our knowledge of the habits of Sphecodes in recent Nos. of this Magazine 

 by the Rev. F. D. Morice, it may be worth while to note that we can add the genus 

 CoUetes to Halictus and Andrena as sharing the special attention of Sphecodes. 

 My friend Mr. Robert Newstead,of Chester, paid considerable attention to Aculeates 

 before he took up his work upon the Coccids ; and I have a note of his recording 

 that he once took Sphecodes pilifron.i $ entering the burrows of CoUetes cunicularia 

 at Wallasey ; and this was not an isolated accident, as he took three specimens of 

 the Sphecodes from the tunnels of the CoUetes on the same day. As this was early 

 in May, the Sphecodes would, I presume, be hibernated. — Willoughby Gabdneb, 

 Reform Club, Liverpool: April, 1901. 



Corsican Ants bred (Leptothorax angustiilus, NyJ., and Sothriomt/rmex meri- 

 dionalis. Eager) . — It may assist some future historians, when writing on the time 

 of appearance of the sexes of ants, if I record my observations on two species while 

 I was in Corsica. At the end of June T saw some small ants, and being desirous 

 of obtaining the winged forms of the species, I traced them to a decayed stump of 

 a large chestnut tree, and by searching I procured large and small pupse (cocoons). 

 I carefully placed them in a bottle with some workers and decaying wood, and for 

 food I placed a knob of white sugar dipped in water ; they readily adapted them- 

 selves to their new home, and appeared very contented ; on July 2nd and following 

 days I had the pleasure of seeing the sexes of Leptothorax angustulus. 



