48 the entomologist's record. 



Walthamstow, where it is sometimes the only species that mil come in 

 any numbers at the beginning of July. As regards Plusia gamma, 

 readers may remember a little discussion started by Mr. Colthrup a few 

 years back (Ent. Rec, xv., pp. 157, 188, 294 ; xvi., pp. 24, 48). I did 

 not send any note on my experience, as Mr. Bankes and Mr. Tutt 

 sufficiently showed that Mr. Colthrup's was here somewhat exceptional ; 

 but while I am writing I may say, from a really wide experience of 

 sugaring at Sandown, in August and September, that P. gamma is a 

 very capricious insect in this respect. In seasons when it is swarm- 

 ing every night about flowers (sugared or unsugared) it will often pay 

 no attention at all to sugared fences, or only two or three stragglers 

 will come; then, every now and again, there will come a" gamma 

 night," or succession of nights, when it comes to the bait in positive 

 abundance, as Mr. Tutt remarked. — Louis B. Prout. January 11th, 

 1907. [We may say that our experience with Naenia typica corresponds 

 entirely with that of Mr. Prout. Some twenty years ago, sugaring on 

 Greenwich marshes and in Westcombe Park, during early July, usually 

 produced this species in abundance. It was not always common in 

 Chattenden Roughs, but at Cuxton and at Deal was a very regular 

 visitor at its proper time. — Ed.] 



The feeding habits of ./Egeria asiliformis (tabaniformis), etc. — 

 Can any of the readers of the Ent. Record give me any hints as to the 

 feeding habits of the larvae of Mgeria asiliformis (tabaniformis)/ Does 

 it feed in the cut stumps like M. culiciformis, or low down near the 

 roots like Trochilium apiformis, or under the bark like JE. seoliaeformis? 

 Newman says " at the roots," but Barrett, copying Hofmann, says 

 " in the trunks, under the bark." Then again, as to M. andreniformis, 

 Mr. Rothschild, in the Ent. Mo. Mag., records finding the larva 

 "mining the stem of Viburnum lantana," but, at the meeting of The 

 Entomological Society of London, on November 7th, Mr. Rothschild 

 is reported as having exhibited " branches of V. lantana showing the 

 mines of 2E. andreniformis." Will Mr. Rothschild or anyone who was 

 present at the meeting, kindly explain accurately where and how the 

 larvae had fed ? Now that the foodplant has been discovered, many 

 collectors, I am sure, would like to search for the insect in their 

 localities, to ascertain its range, etc., in England, and any informa- 

 tion would be most acceptable. — Percy C. Reid, Feering Bury, 

 Kelvedon. January 6th, 1907. [A detailed account of the feeding-habits 

 of the larva of Mgeria (Trochilium) andrenaeformis, at Ashton Wold, 

 Northants, Tring, in Herts, Surrey, and in Kent, together with photo- 

 graphs of affected stems, etc., has just been published in the Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. London, 1906, pp. 471-3. A detailed description of the larva 

 by Mr. E. R. Bankes, and one of the pupa by Dr. T. A. Chapman are 

 also given. — Ed.] 



ifURRBNT NOTES. 



We find it quite impossible to answer all the letters addressed to 

 us individually about The Natural History of the British JJ utter /lies, 

 vol. i. We may state, as general information, that (1) covers can be 

 supplied for the same at Is. 6d. each, to match the series The Natural 

 History of British Lepidoptera ; (2) the cases can be lettered " British 

 Butterflies," vol. i, or "British Lepidoptera," vol. viii ; (b) bound 



