174 THE entomologist's record. 



requisites. Truly entomology of this kind must do us a gi'eat amount 

 of harm, and reduce us, in the opinion of the public, to the general 

 level of the Whitechapel bird-catcher. Some of us are near enough 

 that level now. It were better, it appears to us, that educated men 

 should attempt to raise instead of lower the general tone of entomology. 



Mr. Chitty describes a black form of Telephorns figuratm, and pro- 

 poses the vai'ietal name of crnachanus for it, the variety having been 

 found near Ben Cruachan. 



Mr. McLachlan, in his Presidential Address to the West Kent Nat. 

 History Society. Feb. 1893, suggested a close time for some species of 

 butterflies, as is now the case with some birds. The species specially 

 referred to as requiring this treatment are Lyccena avion and L. ads, 

 which he suggests are probably approaching extinction in Britain 

 through over-collecting. We wonder what will be thought of this idea 

 by those who are at present devising decoys, springs, ifec. for the more 

 certain wholesale capture, and the eonsecpient more certain extermi- 

 nation, of our rarer butterflies. Although we look on the idea as rather 

 Utoijian, it is certainly a move in the right direction, in the present 

 days of over-collecting. 



Mr. Newstead has provisionally named a Coccid. taken in a " nest 

 of Formica nigra at Chesil Beach,'* and which he believes to be new, 

 Lecan opsis form icaruiii . 



Mr. Kobson promises to answer the criticism on '' Is Moisture the 

 cause of Melanism ?" and published in our last issue, at some future date. 

 We are curious to learn what further views Mr. Robson has on the sul )ject 

 of " Melanism," and can promise to give them our most careful atten- 

 tion when they appear. 



Our readers will hear with pleasure that Mr. E. B. Poultou, M.A., 

 F.R.S., F.E.S., has been elected to succeed the late Professor Westwood 

 as Professor of Zoology at Oxford. 



OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Cannibalism in lakv^k of Uallimortha hera. — Callimorplta hera 

 larvae appear to show a slight tendency to eat each other. Aliout live 

 or six have been devoured by their comrades. This operation has so 

 far l)een always performed when the victim was changing its skin and 

 so defenceless, though one was injured in its normal state. I have not 

 on my mind another instance of a hairy larva Avhich is a cannibal, but 

 I daresay there may be others. They feed at night, and if they take 

 a fancy to eating a comrade, they do not leave much more of him by 

 the moniing than would be left if he were to moult and leave tlie old 

 skin. — A. Robinson, Mitre Court Buildings. April 'I'^th, 181)3. 



Cannibal Hairy Caterpillars. — In reference to the interesting note 

 l»y Mr. Sydney Webb on p. 157 of the May Ent. Becord about the larva 

 of Arctia caja sometimes making a meal off the pupa, I may mention 

 that I have noticed exactly the same hal)it in the case of Amhhjptilia 

 acanthodactyla. Last autumn, being anxious to make some observa- 

 tions on the larvffi of this " Plume," I took the opportunity of their 

 being exce})tionally abundant, and collected some hundreds of them, 

 over whicli a careful watcli was kept. Althougli the larva3 did not 

 appear ever to attack one another, they certainly devoured some of 



