106 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



the leaves of Atriplex, completely eating out the fleshy inside in patches, 

 making the leaf appear whitish-green, also spinning up the leaves 

 against the stalk to a slight extent. 



drURRENT NOTES. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, on March 

 5th, 1902, Mr. L. B. Prout exhibited on behalf of Mr. J. P. Mutch, of 

 Hornsey Road, London, N. (a) Vanesm {Kiuionia) pijli/c/doros, L., a 

 $ bred by Mr. H, Baker from pupa from Stowmarket, Suffolk, the 

 ground-colour much darkened and the black markings somewhat 

 enlarged, etc., suggesting perhaps the influence of cold at time of pupa- 

 tion (compare IV. /v«<. Soc. Lnn(l.,lHdi, p. 431, etc.). (b) Chri/sophanits 

 phlaeas, L., an aberration (captured in the Isle of ^^'ight, August, 

 1901) much suffused with the dark colour, especially at outer margin 

 and on hindwings, only a very small patch of the red colour remaining 

 at the inner angle of the latter, (r) Aurotispnta, Hb., a perfectly-halved 

 gynandromorphous example, the right side 3 , the left side $ , taken 

 in August, 1901, in the Isle of Wight, (d) Xoctiia sabrinci, Gn., an 

 aberrant specimen with white antennae and a somewhat hoary appearance 

 on the forewings, taken in East Aberdeenshire, August, 1900. 



At the same meeting Mr. A. Bacot exhibited a series of Malarosoma 

 castrejisis and a series of M. neustria, for comparison with a hybrid 

 brood, resulting from a pairing between a male M. nini.stria and a female 

 M. castrensis = M. hybr. scJiaufiissi. Only a portion of the batch of from 

 200 to 300 ova that the female laid hatched. Of the ova that did not 

 hatch, some were found to contain fully-developed, but dead, larvHs, while 

 in other instances the eggs were quite empty. Continuing, Mr. Bacot 

 said : — ' ' The young larvae were healthy and did not differ perceptibly from 

 a brood of yonng M.caxtiensis, except in regard to their rapidity of growth. 

 Either just before or just after their second moult the brood divided 

 into two portions, one of which grew rapidly and the other very 

 slowly, so that it became necessary to separate them for convenience 

 of feeding. The ' forwards ' were very healthy — I do not remember a 

 single death — and they fed up at an unprecedented rate, producing the 

 female specimens exhibited. The ' laggards ' fed slowly, were unhealthy 

 and weakly, the total number of emergences being seven out of some 

 thirty that spun up ; these are all males, and, judging by the size of the 

 larvfp, the remainder of the 'laggards ' that did not emerge were of this 

 sex. The last of the females that emerged was three weeks ahead of 

 the first male, and, most unfortunately, before any males of either of the 

 parent species, so that the fertility of the hybird females could not be 

 tested. Their bodies apparently contain few, if any, ova. I have 

 every reason to believe, however, that I obtained pairings between the 

 males of the hybrid and females of M. castirnsis, m addition to fresh 

 pairings between males of M. neitstria and females of M. rastroixis, 

 and, therefore, have hopes of continuing the experiment neNt summer." 



At the same meeting Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited cocoons of a 

 Cochlidid moth from La Plata, with empty pupa-cases of a dipterous 

 parasite of the genus Si/strojias, obtained from Herr Heyne, who 

 unfortunately had no imagines either of the moth or fly. Dr. Chapman 

 observed that " Herr Hej^ne was under the impression that the pupa- 

 cases were those of the Cochlidid moth. I mention this, not as a 



