NOTES ON COLLECTING. -17 



<g)RTHOPTERA. 



AcKiDiUiM .KGYPTiuM IN SuRREY. — I think you will be interested in 

 hearing that a fine <? specimen of Acridiiiin ae;/i/iitii(iii hushean brought 

 to me this evening, and I have it alive in my study at the present 

 moment. It was found in a caulitiower, that had been imported from 

 the south of France, by a Godahning greengrocer. The shop people 

 were alarmed, and called in the assistance of a cattle-drover. I suppose 

 they thought he was accustomed to handling fierce beasts ! but he 

 fortunntely took care of it and brought it to me. I see that it has not 

 been often recorded, and so send you news of this specimen. — Oswald 

 II. Latter, M.A., Charterhouse, Godalming. Dccciiibi'r 'Zlt/i, 1901. 



^EMIPTERA. 



ZlCROXA C.ERULEA, LiNN., AN ADDITION TO THE IIeMII'TEKA OF THE 

 NORTHUJIIJERLAND AND DuKHAM DISTRICT. On April 4th, 1901, I tOok 



a beautiful bluish-green Hmniiitcrnii from under a stone lying on the 

 Moors near IJlanchland. Prof. ]3eare kindly identified it as Zicrona 

 raendea, Linn. (Saunders Ht'iniptcra-Ilctrrojitcra, p. B6), an insect of 

 occasional occurrence in the south of England and seemingly much 

 rarer further north. — -Richard S. Bagnall, F.E.S., The Groves, 

 Winlaton-on-Tyne. Jmmanj dth, 1905. 



Gerris canalium, Duf. = na.jas of authors.— Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy 

 writing of this species in the Kntoinolniiist (xxxii., p. 203), says, " It is 

 well distributed over the southern English counties ; but 1 know of 

 only a single record (Lincolnshire) north of the Thames, and none 

 from Scotland or Ireland." In last September, I came across this 

 species in considerable numbers on the canal at Marple, in Cheshire. 

 From the statement quoted above I believed I had discovered a new 

 locality for it, but recently found it recorded from the very same place 

 by Ik-njamin Cooke in a list of Lancashire and Cheshire Hemiptera, 

 published in the Xaturali'it for 1882. — Oscar Whittakkr, F.E.S., 39, 

 Clarendon Road, ^Yhalley Range, Manchester. Jannanj lith, 1905. 



X~!lOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



PlATYPTILIA ACANTHODACTYLA, Hli., ANJ> COSMODACTYLA, llu., IN S. 



Devon, in 1904.— Since Dr. W. S. Riding tells us (Knt.lUr., xvi., p. 295) 

 that he failed to find any larvtu of I'latijjitilia arant/iodarti/la in liis 

 district of East Devon last year, it may be of interest to mention that 

 larva' of the second brood of this species were particularly abundant in 

 the parts of South Devon which 1 worked in the autumn. Having 

 already, during the summer, secured ovipositing females, as well as 

 the larva', of this species in South Dorset, I was most anxious to 

 obtain material for a closer study of the life-history of /'. cosnioflacti/la 

 before the publication of Mr. Tutt's forthcoming volume on the Plumes, 

 and devoted much time, in South Devon, to searching for, and 

 examining, Alucitid larvie and pupte on flower- and seed-spikes of 

 starln/s si/liatira and N. paliistris, and collected about 1500 of them, 

 the great majority being found on the former plant, which was by far 

 the commoner in the hedgerows. \ sadly large proportion, prol)ably 

 not less than one-half of the larvie, were ichneumoned, l)nt the Itrceding- 

 jars poduced 758 imagines of P. acant/iudavti/la, which appeared 



