186 THE entomologist's ItECOIID. 



locality for Ai/rotis lucemea — a very stony piece of ground at the foot 

 of a hill, here called the " Devil's Chair," where the species was 

 very common, though hard to net. ToAvards the middle of August I 

 got a few specimens of Lithouiia solidaijinis, among heather, then in 

 full bloom. On the 21st of August I found a full cocoon of Centra 

 hicmpis, for the first time on birch. This species occurs here not 

 infrequently, but I have always taken it before on alder. In 1893 

 two friends and I got three larvae feeding on this latter in one after- 

 noon. I was fortunate enough to get four specimens of C'irrhoedia 

 .verampelina, by searching at the foot of some very large ash-trees 

 near here, on the 27th of August, and obtained one more two days 

 later. All, Avithout exception, were clinging to blades of grass, the 

 trunks not affording a single specimen. I did not see the insect at 

 all throughout September. During this latter month sugar produced 

 rather good results ; I got three Xantlda <iilva(jo by this means ; one 

 more I bred from a larva got off elm. I have been unable to get 

 the larva of the insect which I call AnthncarU ht'spcridis, though I have 

 searched and swept for it. — F. B. Newnham, M.A., Church Stretton, 

 Salop. Novi'iiiber 2^iid, 1895. 



ElOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Note on the life-history of Thecla roboris, Esp. — As the life- 

 history of this interesting species appears to be imperfectly known in 

 this country, seeing that in the text books by Lang, Kirby and Kane the 

 usual food plant is not given, a few notes on rearing it from the egg 

 may be of interest. The eggs, which were found on stunted ash 

 trees in the neighbourhood of Vernet-les-bains, in the Pyrenees 

 Orientales, in July, 1894, are of a brownish-red colour, and in shape 

 like a cone flattened at the top and rather deeply furrowed at the 

 sides. They are deposited singly on the knotted branches of the most 

 ill-favoured trees in the locality, frequently on the scar left by a last 

 year's leaf. About the middle of March last they were placed in a 

 cool greenhouse, where the larviB began to hatch on the 2.5th of that 

 month. The young larva? were immediately sleeved on a small ash 

 tree grown in a pot, and kept in a greenhouse especially for the pur- 

 pose, thus obviating the difficulty usually found in rearing larvre 

 on ash, which so quicldy Avithers, and does not last well in water. 

 Several small ichneumon flies emerged from some of the eggs about 

 the same time ; certainly far too soon for them to find eggs to 

 attack. The young larva appears to be of a blackish colour, from the 

 numerous black hairs Avith Avhich it is coA^ered, but it soon looks paler 

 when, after feeding for a short time, the skin becomes visible. In the 

 early stages the larvse feed at all times, but after they Avere about half 

 grown, they rested during the daytime, huddled up close together on 

 the shady side of the stem of the ash, near the ground, and only left 

 their retreat to feed at night. The full-fed larva has a purplish 

 lateral stripe, and bears a strong generic resemblance to that of 

 T. qucrcm. They began to pupate on the 2nd May, attaching them- 

 selves to a dead leaf, or to the sleeA-e by a silken girdle round the 

 middle for the purpose, and the first imago emerged on the 15th of 

 May, Avhich is probably much earlier than the time at AA'hich the 

 species appears anywhere in nature, as, having a holiday in vicAV at 



