70 [August, 



Macroglossa stellatarum. — A specimen has recently been taken in the court- 

 yard here, and two others were also observed in the same place. — E. Waterhouse, 

 British Museum, July, 1865. 



[This species seems universally abundant this year ; we observed about a 

 score at one time flying along a stone-wall at Worthing. — Eds.] 



Insects of different genera taken in copula. — " M. Kiinckel exhibited an example 

 of coupling, not between individuals of allied species, but between individuals 

 belonging to different genera, a fact elsewhere related of certain Lepidopterous 

 insects. In this case it concerns two Longicorns, viz., a male of Strangalia 

 melanura, found at Zermatt, coupled with a female of Leptura livida. This fact is 

 worthy of being mentioned only because the coupling was most complete." (Trans- 

 lated from the ' Annales de la Soci^te Entomologique de France,' 4me trimestre 

 1864, bulletin p. 49. — E. McLachlan.) 



NoU'dest/ructive pa/rasitism. — " M. Gu^rin Meneville presented a cocoon of 

 Attacios Bauhinia: from Senegal (constituting his sub-genus Faidherhia), in which, 

 by the side of the perfect insect which died vnthout emei'ging, was found a 

 Hymenopterous parasite, also perfect and dead ; probably new and undescribed." — 

 Id., page 52. 



On s<yund-producing Lepidoptera. — Above thii-ty years since, De Villiers remarked 

 the curious fact, that one of the tiger-moths (Ohelonia pudica) found in France, 

 when flying in the evening, produced an audible sound, and he shewed that the 

 insects possessed a vesicle on each side of the prothorax, filled with air, and sup- 

 posed that t^ sound was produced by muscles acting on this vesicle, and com- 

 pressing the enclosed air. Other explanations wore afterwards given by various 

 observers, and very recently M. Guenee noticed the existence of more developed 

 vesicles in the species of the genus Setina, and hinted {vide Annales de la Societe 

 Entomologique de France, 1864, pp. 399-401 ; Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. I., pp. 223-225,) 

 that the only plausible explanation he could suggest was, that the insect possessed 

 the faculty of alternately partially emptying and filling these vesicles, and thus 

 producing the sound by froissement. Dr. Laboulbene, so well known as an entomo- 

 logical anatomist, has turned his attention to the subject, and in an elaborate me- 

 moir in the Ann. Ent. Soc. de Prance, 1864, pp. 689-704, he records the results of 

 his investigations. Having procured fresh examples of C. pudica, he satisfied him- 

 self that there is no apparent tracheal connection between the vesicles and the 

 interior of the body, and no internal instrument that could act on them in any way. 

 The external surface he found to be slightly clothed with scales, when the insect 

 first emerged, in the same manner as the wings of Sesia fuciformis and bomhyliformis ; 

 on the anterior edge there are numerous little raised striae to the number of 16 or 

 20 in the male, and 8 to 10 in the female. He remarked that the posterior thighs 

 seemed formed in an admirable manner to act on these vesicles. On pressing the 

 insect between the thumb and finger an audible sound was produced ; but in re- 

 peating the operation, having in the meantime disengaged the posterior legs, the 

 insect remained mute. Again, when the vesicle was pierced, and the contained air 

 liberated, no noise was heard. He arrives at the conclusion, therefore, that the 

 secret of the song consists in the pressure of the posterior legs on the vesicles. 



As to Setina, he mentions, that as far as he knows, the first entomologist who 

 asserted the existence of a sound-producing organ in this genus was Haldemann, 

 in Silliman's Journal for 1848. The vesicle is very highly developed in all the species, 



