250 THE entomologist's record. 



I took them entirely l^y sweeping and did not find one part of the day 

 particularly better than another, the end of the afternoon being perhaps 

 slightly the best. It is a very sluggish insect at any time and although 

 I took a goodly series, I only saw a single specimen before it was in 

 the net, and then only by carefully searching among the herbage on 

 hands and knees ; to its retired habits I should attribute its haviug been 

 overlooked prior to last year, not by any means, as suggested by Lord 

 Walsingham in the E.M.M., to its resemblance to some of the obscure 

 species of Eldchlsta. It never struck me at all as being like any 

 Elachista, and I don't think it could have been overlooked for such — in 

 fact I think any micro-lepidopterist boxing it would not i)ass it over 

 or overlook it at all. 



The herbage, among which 1 swept it, was fairly mixed, but I 

 formed an opinion at first that it was most profitable to confine my 

 attention chiefly to Centaurea niyra ; Lord Walsingham, however, wrote 

 me that all the known larvas of the genus and its near allies, fed 

 exclusively on the seeds of various Umhellifene, and acting on his 

 suggestion I was taking them more freely by paying particular 

 attention to a spot where there was a lot of Pastinica saliva. During 

 the month of August I kept a close look out for spun-up seeds on these 

 plants of Pastinica, and in the last week detected small holes in many 

 of the seeds, I found two seeds spun together and a small lepidopterous 

 larva inside. I then gathered all the seeds with holes in I could find, 

 and after a day or so saw larvae crawling about in the bag ; if not 

 C. farreni they are something very nearly allied, but as I found them 

 feeding on the only plants from which I swept the imagines, I feel 

 fairly sanguine that I have only to wait till next July to breed 

 CatapJectica farreni. Lord Walsingham has made a note of the 

 description, and had figures made of the larva to publish as soon as it is 

 proved that they are correct. The larvee appear to enter the seeds at the 

 base, and eating the contents pass out at the side, slightly spinning the 

 eaten seed to another which it continues to feed on, and so on. There 

 appears however to be very little sign of spinning, it being always very 

 slight. I trust any of my old micro correspondents who do not hear 

 from me, and who would like types, will write. — W. Farren, Union 

 Eoad, Cambridge. Oct. 2nd, 189L 



On eggs as helping to determine natural affinities {vide, ante 

 pp. 195-198). — Mr. Bedford has sent me a further communication 

 bearing on this subject, the greater part of which, however, has no re- 

 ference whatever to Insecta. As I do not think that a long (and 

 probably fruitless) discussion on the general subject would be of the 

 sli"htest interest to most of the readers of this Magazine, nor that it 

 would properly find a place in a purely entomological magazine, I 

 therefore only print such parts of the letter as refer to insects. Mr. 

 Bedford writes: — 



(1). " Mr. Tutt seems still to hold the ojunion that there can be no 

 doubt of the general truth that Lepidoptera with similar ova are more 

 closely allied than those with dissimilar ones. In another place {Ent. 

 Eec, vol. v., p. 191) he says that "developmental changes have a real 

 phylogenetic significance." 



(2). " Mr. Tutt in his remarks on my letter says, ' as a matter of 

 fact entomological writings, as a rule, are wonderfully lacking in even 

 ihe simplest rudiments of such scientific assumptions' (viz., such as 

 those implied in ' ilaeckel's famous phrase'). Would that they were I 



