16 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



captivity. I got a female pupa this year on September 8rd. The 

 imago emerged on September 24th. I placed it in a chip-box and it 

 lived until October 18th. This insect pairs very readily in captivity. I 

 have read somewhere that ova of this species are readily obtainable 

 from the larval burrows. Undoubtedly ova are to be found in such 

 places, but they are ova of earwigs'". I enclosed about half-a-dozen 

 females over growing mugwort, and also over old stems formerly 

 tenanted by larvfe, and found that the ova were deposited, in prefer- 

 ence, in a place on the mugw^ort, where a twig had been broken off 

 early in the year, and none at all upon the dead stems. I have several 

 times sent pupa:? to friends to " put down," but they have always failed. 

 In September, 1903, 1 took three females and two males, and placed 

 them upon a plant of C. paliistris in a localitj" where I had never taken 

 the species before. I saw nothing more of the insects, but, in Septem- 

 ber, this year, I found about eighteen pupct- in various plants of marsh- 

 thistle, within a radius of a hundred yards of the plant wher i I had 

 liberated the insects. The ova are of the shape of what are known 

 (here at least) as Dutch cheeses, and are somewhat larger than the ova 

 of Pnlia chi. When first laid they are bright yellow, but soon change to 

 a dull pink, mottled with brown. The micropyle is situated on the 

 upper surface of the Qgg in the centre of a depression. The eggs lack 

 the usual sculpture of a Noctuid ovum, but, under the microscope, show 

 signs of faint depressions. Just previous to the exit of the larva the 

 egg turns grey. The eggs hatch in March and April. Larvae of 

 varying sizes are to be found throughout the summer, and, this year, 

 upon .July 16th, most were about three-quarters grown. Near Birtley 

 here, we get two forms of the insect. Those in the Wear valley, like 

 those on the coast, are of the northern form, while those found upon 

 the old ballast-heaps from the blast furnaces, are exactly the same as 

 southern forms. A further point worthy of notice is that, of necessity, 

 the ova, at one station here, must pass at least three months under 

 water without injury, for the Wear overflows the place for that period. 



OLEOPTERA. 



Notes on Cumberland coleoptera in 1901. — I have not much of 

 interest to record for the past season, my experience being that it was 

 one of the worst for many years, notwithstanding the protracted spell 

 of fine summer weather. Collecting at midsummer was especially 

 bad, many species usually seen abundantly not being noticed at all, and 

 such that did turn up being " over" in a very short time ; but this I 

 always find the case in hot seasons. From flood-refuse in April I took 

 Stenns picipennii>, Er., new to the county, but only a single specimen; 

 also Be»ibi(liu)ii scJtiippeli, Dej., Hnmalota insecta, Th., Chilopora 

 loni/itarsi.s, Er., Ancj/rDphonta omalinus, Er., Clcuuhua arinadillo, Dej., 

 and many commoner species. A fine Aiiiara actoiimata, Pk., always 

 rare here, was picked up on a road. Beneath stones, in May, L'l/ehnis 

 rostratiis, L., and I'terostichits lepidus, F., were noteworthy. A cold 

 day on Wan Fell yielded a fair series of Brcuhjcellus collaris, Pk., by 

 working fairly dry moss sheltered by overhanging clumps of ling. 



* There ought to be no doubt as to this. The eggs of a Noctuid moth ought 

 to be pretty readily distinguishable from the eggs of earwigs. The statement 

 referred to is to be found (inted, vol. xv., p. ]02. — Ed. 



