PRACTICAL HINTS. 273 



Bouskell's ab. /ii/jwcastaneiis ! This seems to us to be great nonsense, and 

 we suggest that there is only one correct plan, /.<?., to incorporate in our 

 British catalogues every aberration or variety that has been properly 

 described according to the recognised laws of entomology (and Mr. Verrall 

 in his last presidential address pointed out what these were), or brought 

 forward as British. To conclude, we congratulate our author on his 

 paper, and all students of British coleoptera should make it their duty 

 to get a copy as soon as possible. — H. 8t. J. K. Donisthorpe, F.E.S., 

 58, Kensington Mansions, South Kensington. 



LiNA popuLi IX THE Pellice Valley. — By the side of the ditches 

 that irrigate the meadows lying on either side of the road between Villar 

 and Bobbie, in the Pellice ^\^lley, willows are not infrequent. 

 Throughout August one of the commonest species on these was Lina 

 poindi. I have frequently seen the species in Wicken Fen, where Mr. 

 Donisthorpe tells me it is very abundant. What interested me about 

 the insect was the fact that one obtained at the same time on the same 

 bush, adult beetles, pup;e, full-grown larvie, larvtie in the stage in 

 which the gregarious habit is disappearing, tiny newly-hatched 

 gregarious larvye and batches of eggs, some newly-laid and others 

 on the point of hatching. I was also interested in the peculiar 

 secretion which the larvae exude from their glandular tubercles when 

 irritated or disturbed. My ignorance of the desiderata still required 

 in the life-histories of the coleoptera led me to send home a supply of 

 material to Mr. Donisthorpe but he tells me that the life-history is well 

 known. Presumably, therefore, the structure and mechanism of these 

 peculiar glands and the nature of the excretion is well known and 

 what was new to me proves to be ancient history to coleopterists. 

 The newly-emerged beetles were still ovipositing and the species 

 evidently would go on reproducing itself until Avinter and the want 

 of food killed it otf in all stages except the hybernating one. How 

 does this species hybernate '? — J. W. Tutt, Westcombe Hill, 8.E. 

 Aaijmt 12th, 1901. 



Abundance of Hydrophilus piceus at electric light. — Walking 

 across the Piazza Reale in Turin on the morning of August 23rd, I 

 observed on the ground beneath the electric lights, among hundreds of 

 moths that had met their doom by being attracted to the light during 

 the preceding night, a great many large examples of this species, 

 sometimes five or six specimens under a lamp and rarely less than 

 three or four. Almost all the squares of the city, which were provided 

 with lamps that were open below, were similarly bestrewn with the dead 

 bodies of the beetles. Altogether I must have seen some -10 examples 

 in only three or four squares so that the total number attracted 

 in the city in one night must be enormous. — Ibid. 



JP>RACTICAL HINTS.* 



Field Work for September. 



By -J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 

 1. — The larvte of Staiin)i)its faiji do not appear to spin up 

 among the green leaves, but almost always, in dead leaves, 



* PiiACTiCAi, Hints fok the Field LiiriDoi'TEKisT, recently published, contains 

 1,'2.50 similar hints to these, distributed over every month in the year. Interleaved 

 (for collector's own notes). — Ed. 



