192 THE entomologist's record. 



in India and North America the predaceous habit of certain butterfly 

 larva3 has been announced, but the present case would seem to involve 

 a change of habit, a leaf miner becoming a parasite on a living body, 

 a flesh miner. To our knowledge such an incident has not been 

 reported before. 



The occuiTence of Zahous gihhtis in lai'ge quantities in the environs 

 of the city of Bremen last summer has excited considerable comment 

 and enquiry. The beetles seemed to come from the new embankment 

 fringing the river Weser. They crawled up the bank and over the 

 adjoining thoroughfares, being often trampled under feet by passers-b3\ 

 They were observed to be emjiloyed in burrowing into the clay in 

 certain places, apparently to oviposit. It has been suggested that the 

 material employed in the new dyke may have contained the larvfe or 

 pupje of this species, but, since this material was not brought from a 

 great distance, and the beetle is quite rai'e throughout the entire 

 district, this exjdanation, while possibly the correct one, is not free 

 from difliculty, and may not be the true explanation. 



The " Butterfly Tablet," manufactured by Denton Bros., Wellesley, 

 Massachusetts, U.S.A., is now being used in America for specimens it 

 is desired to preserve from " the vicissitudes of the voyage," or which, 

 as " types," it may be worth while to keep separately intact. Each 

 sjoecimen is placed, unpinned, with the wings ex^^anded, in a thin card- 

 board box made for the purpose. The body fits in a shallow groove in 

 the white substance which forms the lid of the box, and is covered by 

 a glass plate, which keeps the specimen in position, and allows the 

 upper surface to be examined. The whole is fastened by white jiaper, 

 gummed round the edges, and the box is thus excluded from 

 depredators. 



"The University of California, at Berkeley, is far ahead of Europe in 

 one respect. For the Entomological Society — better known as the " bug- 

 hunters " — have begun the issue of an "Entomologists' Daily Post- 

 card." A post-card of the usual size is printed on both sides, leaving 

 a meagre space for the address. The information supplied to sub- 

 scribers is a note of captures, hints of various sorts, and entomological 

 lore generally. Weekly scientific magazines are generally perilous 

 ventures in America — and even in England — but a daily one, devoted 

 to a single speciality of the most unpractical sort is, for money-making 

 California, a departure which quite keeps up its credit for always taking 

 the lead in unconventionality." — Daily Chronicle. March 6th, 1895. 



Mr. C. Fenn remarks {E.M.M., April) that there are many varieties 

 of the larva? of Tephrosia extersaria intermediate between the two 

 extreme forms mentioned by Mr. Porritt. He also notes that, " like 

 many of the Geometr.s;, this species is liable to vary in the structure of 

 the larvae, some individuals being almost without the dorsal protuber- 

 ance." Mr. Fenn fed his larva? on birch, but has generally beaten the 

 larva? from hazel in September. 



Mr. Newstead, the energetic Cui'ator of the Grosvenor Museum at 

 Chester, reports {E.M.M., April) that birds are very efficient enemies of 

 the Coccidae, or scale-insects, which work such havoc on many of our 

 trees. 



Mr. Ed. Saunders has been able to determine (E.M.M., April) from 

 material sent him from the Isle of Arran b}^ ^Ir. K. J. Morton, that 

 Andrena albicans, Kirb. is the host of Nomada bifida, Thoms. 



