LIFE-HISTORIES. 287 



1902, in this neighbourhood, and off thistles, &c., I got Ceuthorhijn- 

 ckitliits versicolor, Bris., Apion carditornni, Kirb,, Sphaeroderma cardni, 

 Gyll., itc. ; off Ononis spitiosa came Apion onouix, Kirb., in plenty, 

 and off mallows Apion aencnin, F., and A. radioliia, Kirb., while clover 

 produced A. jiaiipcs, F., in profusion. The Hawthornden district, on 

 the 24th, by beating Vicia cracca growing in the hedges, produced 

 Apion riciac, Pi<., and A. erri, Kirb., in numbers, with A. spmrei, 

 Kirb., very rarely; A. erri also came off Latliiirm pratenda, which was 

 growing freely by the roadside. — (Professor) T. Hudson Beake, F.E.S., 

 10, Regent Terrace, Edinburgh. Auffust '28th, 1903. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Variations confined to one sex. — Some months ago a paper by 

 the Rev. G. H. Raynor appeared in the Ent. Tlecord, dealing with the 

 inheritance of var. tiarofamiata (" lartirolor ") of Ahraxan (/roxsKloriata. 

 This variety is confined to the female sex, and the facts appeared of 

 such great theoretical interest that I have been collecting analogous 

 cases for comparison. It appears that while varieties confined to the 

 female are comparatively common in lepidoptera, c.;/., var, valczina of 

 Dry as paphia, the $ vars. in the genus C alias, &c,, there are yet very 

 few well-defined cases of a variety occurring in the male only. Where 

 the $ differs widely from the $ , it may, in some instances, take on 

 the $ form, c.//,, in Hepialus hiinndi from Shetland, and in other 

 orders of insects where the sexes differ widely, the males may be more 

 or less dimorphic, as in the jaws of stag-beetles or the forceps of ear- 

 wigs, but I can find no instance of a variety confined to the male 

 comparable with those mentioned above, which occur in the female 

 only. Can any reader of the Ent. Tterord give an instance of an ex- 

 clusively male variety, either from his own experience or from the 

 literature of the subject ? I should be very grateful if any one could 

 help me with information in this matter, — L, Doncastee, M.A., King's 

 College, Cambridge. [The nearest approach to the conditions which 

 Mr. Doncaster wishes to illustrate, known to us, are to be found in 

 Spilosoma mendica. Here we have a very distinct and uniform female 

 which appears constant everywhere, whilst the ^ s are either (1) of 

 the normal dark sooty coloration, (2) of a pale buff' coloration. There 

 are, we believe, no intermediates between these 3 forms. We are not 

 sure, however, whether the areas of these $ s overlap, z'.^'., whether the 

 dark and pale males both occur in the same district with a white ? , 

 or whether they are confined to different districts. It would be in- 

 accurate, in our opinion, to suppose that we have in the pale buff" J s 

 an approach {sens, strict.) to the $ form. What we appear to have is 

 an atavic return to a common 3' buff" coloration for tlie genus, well- 

 exhibited now in the 3 of -S'. Inhriripcda, and not at all infrequent 

 as a local aberrational development in both sexes of S. mentliastri, 

 A somewhat similar dimorphic condition occurs in the <? s of (.'osmo- 

 triche potatoria. — Ed.] 



:^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LkRYJE, &c. 



Substitute food for the larva of Thestor ballus. — It may be 

 interesting to entomologists to know that the larvse of Thestor ballus 

 can be reared in confinement on AnthylUs nilneraria. I had quantities 

 of ova laid last April by seven females on potted plants of LoIks hispi. 



