CURRENT NOTES. 858 



same purpose in other orders, and the author surmises it will be found 

 used by all insects when moulting a somewhat hard skin. It is used 

 by the imagines of 5 Psychids to maintain their bulk and form after 

 laying their eggs, to enable them to make further necessary muscular 

 movements which they could not do, if flaccid. Also by <? Psychids 

 to enable the muscles to be effective in introducing the abdomen into 

 the sac and ease of the $ . This inflation has no relation to the large 

 air-spaces and air-sacs and expanded trachea; with which many insects 

 are provided. The air secreted had not been examined, but was 

 probably not precisely atmospheric air, but such a mixture of gases as 

 was dissolved in the circulating fluids. 



The Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society is attempting 

 to improve its entomological library, and the secretaries ask for dona- 

 tions of excerpts from the Transactions of Scientific Societies, unbound 

 pamphlets, reprints of papers and magazine articles, Sec. Authors and 

 entomologists who have any spare papers of this kind are asked to 

 communicate with Mr. E. J. Burgess Sopp, 104, Liverpool Road, 

 Birkdale, near Southport. 



Mr. F. N. Pierce is busy studying the male genitalia of the Cyma- 

 tophorids and Noctuids. For the purpose of making microscopic 

 slides and illustrations for a proposed paper thereon, Mr. Pierce asks 

 for males of the following species, condition being quite immaterial : 

 Thijatira batis, Cyniatoj^hora Jiuctnusa, C. ocularis, Brynphila alf/ae, 

 Synia ittusculosa, Leueama iHtelliiia, L. alhipuncta, L. extranca, L.loyeyi, 

 L. l-albani, L. straminea, Senta iilvae, (^oenohia tufa, Tapinvstola con- 

 color, Gortyna ochracea, Xylocatiipa cdiisjiicillari.s, iMpJii/yiiia e.vv/ua, 

 (^ryntodcs f.rulis, llydrilla paluMrls, Ayfutin a(jatltiua, A. ravida, A. 

 pyrophila, Trijiliaena sul).'<c(iua, T. interjccta, T. jiitihria, Noctua difra- 

 pezium, N. depuncta, Paclmobia cdplna, Comnia pyralina, Dianthoccia 

 irregularis, 1). albitiiacula, Polia niijrocincta, Hadena satura, II. pere- 

 yrina, Cloantha perspicillaris, Xylina confortiiis, CucuUia ytiaphalii, C. 

 lychnitis, Heliuthis pdtiyera, H. armigera, Plusia chryson, and P. 

 bractea. Any material should be sent to " The Elms," Dingle, Liver- 

 pool. 



HerrH. Doleschall, in the Soceetas Kntomologica for November 15th 

 last (vol. xvii., p. 121), claims Anthrocera (Zygacna) ochsenheiweri for a 

 valid species, on the ground that he has bred it from larvfe which 

 differed from those of A. jUipcndulac in their smaller size, smaller spots, 

 and paler, more greenish-yellow, colour. In the same article he makes 

 the astounding statement that, in August, 1901, betook a ? A. purpiir- 

 alis (ttiinos), in cap., with a ^ Syutui/iis plwgca, kept the pair alive, and 

 obtained ova from which larvte, and, in due course, one $ imago 

 resulted, which differed in no way from the S of .S'. phegca. One 

 suspects here an error in the observation of the sexes, the phegca being 

 $ , and, further, that it had already paired with a $ of its own 

 species, or the writer may be trusting to memory. Tlie fertilisation of 

 an Anthrocerid by an Arctiid seems very improbable. 



In two particulars, at least, the reports of the Entomological 

 Society of London are occasionally a decade or two behind date. 

 Leaving out the obsolete synonymy sometimes used, the mode of 

 noting the exhibition of aberrations and varieties is exceedingly 

 misleading. In a report of the meeting of October loth, now before 

 us, we read: "Mr. E. P. Pickett exhibited a variety of the female 



