262 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



influence of ammonia, the female dying with her ovipositor and 

 abdominal fans protruded, a most unusual proceeding, and perhaps 

 something to do with this strange union. — Id. 



Vitality of Zeuzera pyrina, L. — Walking round the garden on 

 July 29th, 1907, I noticed something curious lying on the path. It 

 proved to be the remnant of a female specimen of Zeuzera •pyrina, L. 

 The head, the four wings and four-and-a-half of the legs were all 

 gone. The prothorax and half of the mesothorax had been apparently 

 eaten away so that only the upper chitinous parts remained. The 

 metathorax still carried one entire leg and femur of the other leg. 

 The abdomen appeared entire, and the astonishing thing was that the 

 ovipositor was still active. Seeing this I took up the torso and applied 

 it to a crack in the bark of an apple-tree, when the ovipositor was 

 thrust deeply into the fissure, but no eggs were laid. Subsequent 

 examination proved the abdomen to contain a mass of ova, but none 

 seemed ready to be laid. Had the moth already laid ova, I believe 

 even these poor remains would have continued oviposition, such was 

 the vitality of the ovipositor. — Alfred Sich, F.E.S., Corney House, 

 Chiswick. September 6th, 1907. 



l^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Cap over the Mine of Trochilium andren^eforme. — With regard 

 to the Hon. C. N. Rothschild's remarks on the construction of the cap over 

 the mine of Trochilium andrenaeforme, I may say that I have had 

 occasion to examine several this season. It appears to me that the 

 full-fed larva, on entering the stem, does not eat its way straight 

 into the pith, but feeds in a circle under the bark, hollowing out a 

 sort of chamber which gets filled with f rass round the sides, the centre 

 being kept clear. On the completion of the circle, the larva, that I 

 had under observation, bit almost through the bark in the centre of 

 the chamber, and appeared to me to attach some threads of silk to the 

 completed cap ; I presumed it then ate its way into the centre of the 

 twig, as I could no longer see the bark being moved. I did not notice 

 any frass ejected at all after the larva had got beneath the bark, it was 

 all packed away round the edges of the chamber, and the edges of the 

 cap rested on the frass. — H. M. Edlesten, F.E.S., Forty Hill, Enfield. 

 October 10£//,1907. 



Egglaying of Langia telicanus. — On June 27th, I watched 

 Langia telicanus and Lampides hoeticus laying eggs. L. telicanus was very 

 common about some bushes of Adenocarpus near the sawmills on 

 the way to Porrino, and many were observed to oviposit. The point 

 preferred was on the bunch of buds at the end of a flowering spike, on a 

 bud i-inch long, about J-inch from the end ; the egg was usually laid on 

 the outer surface, but with the abdomen so pressed down between the 

 buds as to be practically covered, and from many directions quite 

 hidden by the buds below. In curling her abdomen under her, and 

 into the buds, ifc seemed necessary that the end of the abdomen should 

 feel that it was thus between two surfaces, i.e., that the back of the 

 end of the abdomen should be touched by the protecting bud. Other 

 situations, as on the calyx of a half-opened flower were occasionally 

 used, and only when the proviso of something partially protecting it 

 was met. On these bushes eggs and larvae were freely observed, as 



