SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 325 



looking at the figures of his specimens {Trans. Eni. Soc. Lond., 

 i8go, PI, v.), where figs. 3, 6, 11 and 12 are more or less what 

 would be vulgarly called cripples, whilst the asymmetry in 

 some of the other specimens points exactly to the same con- 

 clusion. When one reads such as the following : — " It is pro- 

 bably owing to the greater exposure that they have a less 

 vigorous appearance, and include a large proportion of 

 cripples " (p. 137), when speaking of the dark and much- 

 spotted moths ; and again "The whole of the fourteen emerged 

 in good condition, showing that I had fallen on a healthy 

 brood ; and showing also that it was a naturally dark-coloured 

 one, and therefore, perhaps, not so well adapted to show any 

 darkening of colour as a lighter-coloured set would have been" 

 (p. 139), thus unconsciously linking a certain (dark) colour 

 with health and vice versa, and when one reads as results : — 

 ** Thirty-six pupae, twelve emerged, of which seven were 

 cripples ;" " sixty-three larvae, eighteen pupae, four emerged, 

 of which two were cripples ;" " twenty-six pupae, thirteen 

 emerged, of which four were cripples, etc.," (p. 142), I think 

 some consideration should be given to the facts. 

 {To be continued.) 



Scientific notes. 



Notes on the genus Homceosoma. — An error in the "Practiral 

 Hints " for September, has been the means of directing my attention to 

 a group, which I have in some way neglected. As some of our best 

 collectors seem to be in doubt as to the respective species, I think that 

 perhaps it may be advisable to make a note on the subject. 



-Honiceoso/na nivibella. This species, perhaps the most common of 

 the genus, feeds in the larval state on many Composite plants. Its food 

 generally is Matricaria, but Mr. Eustace Bankes writes : — " It is by no 

 means confined to that plant, but is equally found on several other 

 composite flowers, Anthemis cotula, Solidago virgaitrcea, etc. I am 

 almost certain that it is as often to be found on ragwort as on anything 

 else. It is not my experience either, that the larva feeds singly ; there 

 is only room for one in a single flower, but several are often found in a 

 single plant. I collected, this autumn, a good bunch of ragwort heads 

 containing larvce which I fully expect will prove to be nimbella^ Herr 

 Eppelsheim writes : — " The larva of H. nimbella bores into a single 

 flower, in which it remains concealed ; its presence, however, being 

 often indicated by the florets which it dislodges" {Steit. Ent. Zeit., 



1890. P- 53)- 



H.saxicola. This species, which feeds on flower heads of chamomile 



(Vaughan), and flower seeds of several species of Compositcc (White), 



is considered a var. of H. nimbella by Mons. Ragonot {E. M. M. xxii., 



26), who says that ^'■saxicola is larger, with the fore-wings more distinctly 



