SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 149 



are two, if not three, very minute bristles at the base of the 

 antennae. 



I have never taken the larva on anything but ash, which is 

 no doubt its proper food in this district (Hereford), and its 

 form and colouring are so adapted to its residence on the 

 leaves of the ash, that I should imagine its other foodplants 

 are makeshifts, resorted to, if one may so express it, because 

 their botanical affinities persuaded the parent moth when ovi- 

 positing, that if they were not ash they were something very 

 like it, and the larvae found it possible to accept the position. 



I have never had a pupa of this species successfully pass a 

 second winter in that stage. 



{To be contimied.) 



fgCIENTIFIC NOTES. 



The British Coccinellid^. — {Continued from p. 123.) 

 CocciNELLA, Linne. — This genus formerly contained two-fifths of the 

 entire British species, but in the present arrangement six only are 

 included. The first in order, C. Yo-pundata, L. {variabilis^ 111.), has 

 been referred to previously as being one of our most variable species. 

 It is common and generally distributed, and may readily be recognised 

 by the yellow legs when other characteristics are wanting. C, 

 hieroglyphica, L., occurs in heathy places, and is generally common. 

 At Esher, Farnham, Shirley, West Wickham, and other localities in 

 Surrey it can be taken abundantly by sweeping heath, the black vars. 

 being almost commoner than the type form. C. 1 1 -pund at a \s occdi- 

 sionally abundant on the banks of the Thames and other places near 

 London. A considerable variation is exhibited in the spot-markings 

 on the elytra ; sometimes the spots are entirely confluent, and in the 

 Irish exhibits by Rev. W. F. Johnson and Mr. H. G. Cuthhert the 

 whole of the specimens are of this character. The Rev. W. F. Johnson 

 writes me that the type form of this species is rare in Ireland. The 

 variety occurs also at Farnham (Surrey), Rainham. (Essex) and 

 Yarmouth. C. ^-pundata, L. is a northern insect, and I have no 

 authentic information concerning it. C. ^-pundata, L., though 

 generally common everywhere, can be best obtained by sweeping the 

 rank grass at sides of meadows. It is also common on heath, and 

 widely distributed. C. distinda, Fald. {labilis, Mulsant) closely 

 resembles C. 'j-ptindata, but the anterior angles of the thorax are much 

 broader, more rounded, and not so projecting ; and the apex of the 

 episterna of the mctasternum is white. The species appears to be 

 local rather than common, and occurs in various parts of Surrey, Kent, 

 and Sussex. 



Halvzia, Mulsant. — As very little reliable information is to be 

 obtained respecting H. \2-gutiata,'^ it must be passed over for the 



^ It may be as well to note here that the term '■^ 'guttata " is applied to the while- 

 spotted species. 



