802 THE entomologist's record. 



apart on one side of the smaller valleys. The chief attraction seemed 

 to be the flowers of a geranium {Geranium acoiiitifdUuni). A female 

 that I caged upon a plant of Viala hijiora on July 16th, on the 17th 

 laid fourteen ova, and by the 19th had deposited about 60 ; but only 

 one upon the upperside of a violet leaf. This fact did not encourage 

 me to believe that I had found the right foodplant, and I spent some 

 hours amongst the insects between this date and \ugust 8th, trying to 

 learn their secret. At last, after carefully examining the ground, and 

 watching the insects, I had come to the conclusion that it very likely 

 was either the geranium or a honeysuckle {Lonicera caerulea), for it 

 was only where these two plants grew together that I saw the insects. 

 This was, however, only a coincidence, for, on the 8th inst., I saw a 

 female behaving in a suspicious way, and watched her, through my 

 binoc, liars, settle on a plant of Viola bijiora, and presently leave it for 

 another. I thought that she actually had laid, and as she w'as very 

 restless, I thought it prudent to net her. (She unfortunately perished 

 next day in a cage on my window-sill in a violent rainstorm, full of 

 ova.) Although I could not find any ova after a careful search, this 

 induced me, when the larvte emerged next day, August 9th, to include 

 amongst the collection of likely leaves ofiered to them, some of the 

 ]7'/Zrt hijiora. To my delight they took to these at once, and now, August 

 26th, are apparently thriving. The young larva, when first emerged, 

 is of a pale, dull yellow, sparsely covered with hairs, and with a black 

 head. After the first moult the colour is a leaden-black, with black 

 head and spines, and there are three conspicuous light patches on the 

 sides on the 5th, 6th and 7th segments. I had no microscope with 

 me, but with a hand lens the ovum of this species most resembled the 

 figure of the ovum of Mditaca maturna, in Hoffman's book, only that 

 the grooves appeared deeper cut, and the sides of the ovum more fluted 

 than that of .1/. maturna, the colour being of a very pale, trans- 

 parent, yellow-green. Besides these larvae, I brought back from the 

 Engadine larvae of C'olias palaeno, C. phiconwne, Arctia jiavia, and ova 

 of Urcnthis pales, C/trysopfianus liippothoe var. eurijbia, C. rinjaurcae, 

 Coenoni/inpha sati/rion, the last three hatching now, and all the produce 

 of caged females. — W. H. St. Quintin, Scampston Hall, York. Aiuiuat 

 mth, 1908. _ 



<irUR RENT NOTES. 



Dr. D. Sharp adds [Knt. Mo. Ma<i., p. 248) Fhortica rarirj/ata, 

 Fall., a Drosophilid fly, to the British fauna, on the strength of two 

 specimens taken near Brockenhurst at the end of June and early July. 

 Mr. Collin has suggested that the correct name will probably prove to 

 be Ainiota varie^ata. Dr. Sharp also confirms Loxocera ni<irifrons, 

 Macq., as British, several examples having been taken near Brocken- 

 hurst. 



The receipt of two or three successive circulars stating that it is pro- 

 posed to publish an account of the " ]\Ioths and Butterflies of the 

 United States east of the Rocky Mountains," in two volumes, at the 

 enormous price of f 21 for the two volumes, tempts one to ask for 

 details. When one looks at Dyar's Catahxjue and remembers the 

 extensive lepidopterous fauna of this vast area, and when one further 

 calls to mind Scudder's three huge tomes on the butterflies of a 

 small section of this area, one is constrained to ask for full particu- 

 lars of the scientific value of the proposed letterpress. These volumes 



