236 [October, 



usual golden rings. This year considerably more of these black pupae occurred, 

 but not from the wild larvae, of which from some 2000 I did not notice a single 

 one. But they occurred in three distinct broods from my hibernated larvae in 

 the proportion of, 1 think, quite 7 or 8 per cent., though I did not count them. 

 None of the broods were from last year's black pupae, as they pi-oduced only 

 the most ordinary forms of the moth, and were not paired. This year's pro- 

 duced good varieties, following their parents. It did not occur to me either 

 year to pair a couple of moths from the black pupae, as I now wish I had done, 

 to ascertain whether they would have produced a strain of entirely black pupae. 

 This could have been done this year from good varieties of the moth, and 

 if a similar opportunity arises again, 1 hope to do it. — Geo. T. Pohritt, 

 Huddersfield : September 3rd, 1917. 



Further note o?i the habits, etc., of the Hhododendrcn-Tinr/id, Leptobyrsa 

 rhododendri Ilorv.— In Vol. LII of this Magazine, pp. 207, 208, Sept. 1916, I 

 appended a supplementary note to Mr. E. E. Green's record of the capture of 

 this insect in Surrey. Further interesting particulars as to its life-history, etc., 

 as observed by Mr. E. L. Dickerson and other entomologists in the Eastern 

 United States, are to be found in the " Journal of the New York Entomological 

 Society," vol. xxv, June 1917, pp. 105-112, pi. 8.* Mr. Dickerson figures the 

 falcate anal claspers of the male, the saw-like ovipositor used by the female in 

 depositing its egga in the leaf-tissue, the egg in situ, etc. Apparently there 

 are only four n3'mphal instars, instead of five as in some of the allied New 

 World forms. The same writer states that i. rhododendri Horv. (= explanata 

 Ileid.") is a native American species and that it has evidently been introduced 

 into Europe on rhododendrons imported from the United States. — G. C. 

 Champion, Horsell, Wokiug; Sept. -ith, 1917. 



Note on an old specimen of Andrena vaga Panz. (ovina KL), a species not 

 recorded as British. — When I first examined the Walcott collection of 

 Aculeate Hymenoptera at Cambridge nearly twenty years ago, I removed 

 to the duplicate drawer a very old and dirty example of an Andrena, which 

 was supposed to represent A. polita Sm., since it evideutly did not belong to 

 that species. Some time ago I again examined and partially cleaned this 

 specimen and found it to be a rather small J of the well-known Continental 

 species A. vaga, which is allied to A. cineraria. No doubt this example was 

 taken in Britain, and its capture would certainly date back to some year earlier 

 than 1850. All Walcott's specimens were certainly British, excepting a few 

 duplicates received from the British Museum and a few that he purchased 

 from Pelerin, and all these were specially labelled. Moreover, A. polita was 

 supposed to be peculiar to England in Walcott's time, and a representative 

 could not have been obtained from the Continent. Superficially most like 

 A. cineraria, A. vaga is very distinct from it by the very long third autennal 

 joint, not to mention the genital characters. I have a very robust, faded J of 

 A. albicrus which slightly resembles Walcott's vaga, but, of course, the resem- 

 blance is entirely superficial, and apart from the entirely different 8th ventral 

 segment, the lack of the conspicuous pale apical ciliation of the ventral segments 



» In this periodical, pp. 112-122, pi. 9, there is also a valuable contribution on tl:e life-history 

 of a Corixid-bug, Arctocoiixa alternata, by H. G. Hungcrford. — G. C. C. 



