CtJRBENT NOTES. 237 



Mr. Austen, of 5, North Street, Folkestone, has undertaken to 

 collect Macro-lepidoptera by subscription, from the commencement of 

 March until the end of September. The Avhole of the insects 

 captured are to be divided among the 12 subscribers, of whom 8 have 

 already been obtained. The district worked will be the rich one of 

 South-east Kent — Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Ashford and Canterbury, 

 with which Mr. Austen has been familiar from his boyhood. Mr. 

 T. Salvage, of Arlington, Sussex, will collect this year in Rannoch 

 and the Shetland Isles. If last year's success in the North is to be 

 repeated this, collectors there will have little cause for complaint. 



Mr. .J. Anderson, Alve Villa, Chichester, states that his friend Mr. 

 Davey, from whom he obtained the cases of the Basket Caterpillar, 

 described in our article, (vitc, pp. 121-123, has offered to get another 

 supply of cases for any entomologists wishing to verify the life-history 

 of this curious insect. 



SOCIETIES. 



The City of London Entomological and Natukal History Society 

 met on January 21st, 1896. — Exhibits : — Rev. C. R. N. Burrows : 

 along and variable series of Calamia lutosa taken at Rainham during 

 the past year, and photographic enlargements of some of the specimens 

 showing special characters, to which he referred in a paper which he 

 read on the species. Messrs. Bate, Heasler, Prout and Tutt, also 

 exhibited C. lutosa from various localities. 



Mr. Tutt exhibited on behalf of Miss Elizabeth Miller, Spring 

 Villa, Coval Road, Chelmsford, a cluster of cocoons of AjiJiuiiiiasoviella, 

 and read the following notes from her : — On a cluster of cocoons of 

 Aphojiia sociella. — " In October, 1894, a man Avorking for us, 

 whilst removing a quantity of Avood from a corner of the garden, 

 found what he thought was the nest of a mouse. He tried to open it, 

 and, partly succeeding, discovered that it contained a number of 

 caterpillars about half an inch long, and of a bright yelloAV colour. 

 He gave it to my father, and we put it in a box in an outhouse, 

 without damping it the whole of the time it Avas in our possession. 

 We kept it until May, 1895, Avhen a large number of moths 

 emerged from it, of which we only kept nine. The moth turned 

 out to be Aphomia sacidla. When found the cluster was 

 covered with the heads, thoraces, and wings of Humble-bees. It was 

 placed under the wood, which was on a grassy part of the garden, in 

 a little excavation in the ground, apparently lined Avith dead grass 

 mixed Avith leaves and some AvooUy substance. It Avas our first idea 

 that it Avas a bee's nest, and Ave are quite sure that it Avas some kind 

 of nest before the moth took possession of it. We see that in the 

 Entom. lu'cord, vol. vi., pp. 76-77, Mr. W. P. Blackburne-Maze 

 describes and gives a plate of a similar nest, but throAvs some little 

 doubt as to the larviB feeding in the nests of Humble-bees, and 

 suggests that, in the instance he records at least, the lar\-iB probably 

 fed in a Avasp's nest. HoAveA'er that may be, there can be no doubt 

 that the cluster Ave record AA'as formed in the orthodox fashion, in a 

 Humble-bee's nest, as it Avas placed in an exactly similar position to 

 that in Avhich Humble-bees generally build, and also, Avhereas there 

 Avas not even the remains of one Avasp to be seen, there AA-as an 

 abundance of the remains of Humble-bees." Mr. Tutt also exhibited 



