CURRENT NOTES. 189 



well-known to British collectors to need description. When the larvae 

 first change to pupae, the thorax and wings are of a pale, semi-trans- 

 parent, sage-green, the abdomen of a yellowish-green, and the head 

 and head-parts of a pearly-yellowish (this is so both dorsally and 

 ventrally). In the next stage the ventral area is exceedingly pale 

 greenish-white, the head-parts being rather paler than the wings 

 arvl legs, whilst the venter of the abdomen round the cremastral area 

 is more bone-coloured, the dorsum in this stage being much darker, of 

 a suffused greyish-green on the thorax, much speckled with fine dark 

 dots ; the abdomen of a suffused greenish-yellow, with traces of rather 

 •darker oblique subdorsal lines on each segment, the space between the 

 supraspiracular and ventral areas being of the darker and more 

 suffused colour of the thorax, whilst a fine dark mediodorsal line runs 

 the whole length of the dorsum from the frons to the posterior edge. 

 In the next colour-change the paler areas, ventrally and dorsally, 

 become semi-transparent, dirty grey-brown, whilst the darker parts of 

 the dorsum of the thorax, the mediodorsal line, the sides of the 

 abdomen, and the speckling of the dorsum of the abdomen, become 

 dark grey, the five (or six) oblique, subdorsal, abdominal lines, being 

 very pale. In this sta.ge the pupa has much the appearance of a pebble, 

 and, as the larvae pupate quite free from cremastral attachment, and 

 possibly on the ground, the colour is probablj' of great value, from the 

 point of view of protection. The earliest pupa w^as found on June 

 6th, one on June 7th, and three between the afternoon of June 7th and 

 early morning of June 8th. At this time, some of the larvfe sent over 

 were not more than 6mm. long, apparently having moulted once since 

 their hybernation. Thev were, however, of the same vivid green. — 

 J. W. TuTT, 119, Westcombe Hill, Blackheath, S.E. 



CURRENT NOTES. 



Dr. D. Sharp notes {Ent. Mo. Matj.) seven British species in 

 the genus Parniis — -P. prolifencornis, P. auricidatus, Edw., P. (/risens, 

 P. laiiclus, P. ahiiricns, P. nitidulus, and P. ernesti, Ganglb. [auric a- 

 latiis, Auct.). He also publishes {Ent. Mo. Ma;/.) a note on Aphodius 

 nit/er, Panzer, pointing out that the name was wrongly introduced by 

 Crotch for Ajihodius jilat/iatns ab. concolor, but that he has now a 2 

 from the New Forest that " answers all the requirements of the insect 

 Erichson referred to ni'/er, Panz.," and considers that the species 

 should be reinstated in the Catalogue. The evidence, however, even 

 now is not too satisfying. 



Mr. Bagnall adds the following species of Thysanoptera to the 

 British fauna, viz., Megathrips nobilis (also new to science) from dried 

 •sedge in Wicken Fen, Cryptothrips dentipes, Kent., taken at Port- 

 marnock, near Dublin, and in Wicken Fen, Trichothrips sewicaecns, 

 Uzel, under the bark of a decaying willow at Greatham, near Hartle- 

 pool, T. copiosus, Uzel, under the bark of a beech tree in Epping 

 Forest, April, 1908. 



Mr. A. H. Hamm publishes {Ent. Mo. Ma;/.) some most interesting 

 observations on the pairing of Ewpis opaca, F., from which it appears 

 that the sexes only copulate during sunshine, that thecJ holds prey in the 

 middle pair of legs (sometimes for a long time before actual copula- 

 tion), which it transfers to the J at the time of actual pairing, 

 the latter taking place in the air, the two insects settling directly after- 



