\ 



1920.] 163 



A curious habit of the larva of Tiresias serra F. — I have recently taken 

 the hu'va of Tiresias serra under loose bark. It has occurred for many years 

 under the hark of a plaue-tree, where Ptimis subpilosus has also beeu found in 

 the winter, and specimens have now been seen under oak bark many miles 

 away. The larva is found among cobwebs. I believe it lives for about two 

 years, and changes its skin rather often, as skins of various sizes may be found 

 among the cobwebs. What it feeds on I cannot discover. It is evidently pro- 

 tected from the spiders by its erect bunches of hairs. It makes its own webbed 

 cocoon, and changes into the perfect insect in the larval skin. It has a most 

 curious habit. At the end of the last segment of the abdomen of the larva is a 

 tuft of about thirty long hairs. When watching these with a lens, about every 

 half-minute the insect can be seen to vibrate them at great speed laterally 

 to about 10 degrees on each side, so fast that they practically become in- 

 visible. This goes on for about 10 to 15 seconds. I have no idea as to the 

 cause or object of this, but there must be one. — Norman H. Joy, Theale : 

 Jam Ath, 1920. 



Tychius junceus lieiche and T. haematopus Gijll. — With reference to 

 Mr. Newbery's note on p. 130 antea, the question whether the small Tychius 

 taken by Mr. Bennett under Lotus corniculatus at Hastings is T. haematopus 

 Gyll. or not depends entirely on the circumstance whether it does or does not 

 exhibit the characters ascribed to that species in the current definitions. The 

 sjiecimens which I have certainly do so. No amount of opinion or argument 

 will alter the fact that Mr. Bennett's insect, although it was made out by 

 Mr. Newbery to be junceus Reiche, has the side margins of the elytra parallel 

 from the shoulder to about the half-length and no fringe beneath the anterior 

 femora of the male, and is therefore haematopus Gyll. ; whilst the T. junceus of 

 my table (Ent. Mo. Mag. xlvi, p. 82) has the side margins of the elytra evenly 

 curved from the shoulder to the apex and the anterior femora in the male 

 fringed beneath, and is therefore 2\junceus'Re\c\ie. The difference in the shape 

 of the elytra is quite easy to appreciate when male specimens are compared, 

 though the distinction is much less evident, and liable to be overlooked, in the 

 females. I am only concerned to point out that the insect t.aken by Mr. Bennett 

 and the T. junceus of my table, which I once found rather freeh' on Medicago 

 hqmlina at Colesborne, cannot with advantage be treated as belonging to the 

 same species ; and by what name they are respectively to be called is quite 

 immaterial. — J, Edwards, Colesborne, Cheltenham : Ju7ie \Qth, 1020. 



Note on Paniscus (sp.) [Opliioninae). — On June 14th I found two Tortrix 

 larvae, one with one and one with two larvae of some species of Paniscuit on 

 the thoracic segments. All three larvae were plump and with primae viae full 

 of green material, and were attached to their host by both extremities. Each 

 showed remains of three cast larval skins. Marks on the skin of the host showed 

 that the parasites varied tiieir feeding-places. Next day, June 15th, tlie two 

 larvae of Paniscus on the one host told a different tale; one was very plump; 

 the other very shrunk and wrinkled, and without any green contents, whitish 

 and less than half its previous size. I can only suggest one reason for this 

 chauge — viz., that its parasitic companion, which was within a comfortable 



