1866.] 261 



is therefore evidently doable brooded sometimes, and 1 suspect this to be the oase 

 with some others of the genus. May I ask for evidence on this subject from my 

 entomological brethren? R. C. R. Jokdan, M.D., Edgbaston, Birmingham. 



Note on the larva of Emmelesia alhulata. — The larva of this species has been 

 described more than once before, and I should not have thought of saying anything 

 about it myself, but that when, for the purpose of procuring specimens for figuring, 

 I set to work this season to rear it from the egg, I found that not one of my speci- 

 mens corresponded with previous descriptions. I am driven to the conclusion, 

 therefore, that this is a variable species, and proceed to record the variety I have 

 met with. 



On June 2nd of this year I took some moths, and one female laid several eggs, 

 and next day I looked for and found some more laid at large on jjlants of yellow- 

 rattle in the same locality. 



These eggs are oval and yellow, paler at first, and becoming richer in tint after- 

 wards, deposited on the flower bracts. On June 9th the httle yellowish larvae with 

 dark heads appeared, and a few days afterwards I captured several others feeding 

 in the green and tender seed-pods of their food-plant. It is easy to detect a larva, 

 as the seed-vessel containing it looks discoloured ; but I could not perceive that 

 they spun together any covering for themselves, all I noticed were completely hid- 

 den within the seed-pods. After a change or two, the larvae became dirty whitish 

 in tint, the head, plate on second segment, and tip of tail, being dark. About 

 June 30th they were full fed, and were then of an uniform pale primrose-yellow — 

 no lines — but the ordinary dots very small, brownish, with a few bristles, the head 

 brown, the horny plates on second and thirteenth segments scarcely tinged with 

 brown,' spiracles brown. Soon after this date they changed to pupae, but before 

 doing so, as far as I could see, they all left their food, and entered the earth j and 

 although I searched diligently, I failed to find any pupae in the ripened plants 

 where I had previously taken the moths, eggs, and larvae. — John Hellins, 5th Oct. 



Macroglossa stellatarum on the wing in February. — Yesterday I was taking a 

 walk round by Plymouth Bridge, and along a stone embankment, with a warm sun on 

 it (the wind being from the north), I saw an example of M. stellatarum flying actively. 

 I watched it as it flew several times a distance of ten or twenty yards backwards and 

 forwards, and once it settled near me, but I could not fix my eye on its place of rest ; 

 but shortly afterwards I saw it rise, and subsequently disappear round a bend of the 

 lane. I also took a bee (one of the Andrenidai) on a Taraxicum &ower. — B, Pips' ABD, 

 Portland Square, Plymouth, February lith, 1866, 



Lepidopterous captures in various localities. — North of Ireland. — Lohophora 

 viretata ; one specimen in a fir-wood. Fiivpithecia innotata; one specimen flying 

 on a heathy mountain. Charaias graminis ; plentiful, flying by day in the long 

 gi-ass. Scapula alpinalis ; common at the Giant's Causeway, and along the coast 

 westward. Near London — Pterophorus acanthodactylus ; abundant in Battersea 

 Park, hovering at dusk over the flowers of a kind of sage. Sarrothripa Eevayana ; 

 one specimen beaten from hawthorn. Near Guildford — Xylina semibrunnea ; 

 one specimen at ivy. X. rhizolitha ; two specimens at ivy. — S. Canning, 51, St. 

 George's Square, S.W. 



