CURRENT NOTES. 



217 



before hatching ; and, of course, the rounded end to tliat of the tail. 

 While the embryonic venter is still external, the relative positions of 

 these parts, on Kowalevski's principles, should be just the reverse." 



guRRENT NOTES. 



i\lr. Butler refers our Plusia verticillata, Gn. to Pliisia eriosoma, 

 Doubleday, Bieff. New Zeal, i., p. 285, n. 114 (1843). It would be 

 well if this were thoroughly investigated. 



Mr. Hodgkinson reports a specimen of Stigmonota ravulana caught in 

 May at Grange-over-Sands. Mr. Dale adds Sesia coyiopiformis to the 

 British fauna, but it would be well if this were confirmed by some other 

 authoritative entomologist. Pieris dapUdice is recorded from Addington 

 (Croydon) by Mr. N. H. Joy, and from Margate by Mr. S. Cooper. 

 Mr. G. Kichardson of Beckham records five P. leucophaea from Wye, 

 Kent, and it is also recorded from the same locality by Mr. Chittenden ; 

 Plusia moneta from Dover, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, W^eybridge, 

 Merrow (Guildford), and Sprowston (Norwich), whilst Mr. Waller 

 records the breeding of two specimens of S2)hin.v pinastri from larva? 

 captured in Suffolk. The most startling record of the year thus far, 

 however, is the capture of two larvae of Catephia alchymista in Abbot's 

 Wood on July 5th, by Mr. H. W. Sheplieard-Welwyn. These larva? 

 would undoubtedly have been objects of interest had they been 

 exhibited at one of the London Societies' meetings, but they s]jun up 

 next day. One would hardly have expected that any resident British 

 entomologist would have been able to identify larv?B of C. alchymista 

 off-hand, and probably the record is erroneous. It would also be well 

 to enquire whether July 5th is at all a likely date for the pupation of 

 the larv£e of this species. 



A strange example of Zygaena trifolii with two normal fore-wings, 

 the left hind-wing replaced b}^ another wing exactly similar to the 

 fore- wing and the right hind-wing absent was taken by Mr. Christy on 

 June 18th in W'est Sussex. Mr. J. E. K. Allen records the capture of 

 a specimen of Zygcena piloselke with the usual red on all the wings 

 rei^laced by pale yellow. 



The British Naturalist for August contains an important contribution 

 to economic entomology in the shape of a comprehensive paper 

 (illustrated) on " The Hessian Fly " (Cecidomya destructor) by Mr. F. 

 V. Theobald, M.A. If our Government were alive to their duties, they 

 would reprint this paper and circulate it widely among farmers. Mr. 

 Dale propounds further conundrums, but his inability to apprehend a 

 joke almost suggests that he must have Scotch blood in his veins. 



Micro-lepidopterists have just added another species to the British 

 fauna. It was discovered by that keen observer Mr. W. Farren at the 

 end of June, 1893, and during the first fortnight of July, 1894, by 

 sweeping herbage near Cambridge. The species is described and 

 figured by Lord Walsingham in tlie current Ko. of the Ent. Mo. Mag. 

 under the name of Cataplectica farreni. Cataplectica is a new genus, 

 created by Lord Walsingham for the reception of profugella, anro- 

 maculata, fulvrguttella, statariellu, laserpjiticlla, silerinella and farreni, the 



