is9rt.j 279 



Periplaneta aniericana, L — On November 7th I received a fine specimen of this 

 insect from the Royal Horticultural Society's G-ardens at Chiswick. — W. J. LircAS, 

 21, Knight's Park, Kingston-on-Thames : November 9th, 1896. 



Aspidiofun hederce, Vallot, new to Britain. — -Through the kindness of Mr. 

 McLachlan T have recently received from Teddington, near London, a quantity of 

 holly leaves infested with the Coccid named above, which is an addition to our fauna, 

 and interesting as having been lost sight of for a number of years. Signoret's 

 description (Essai, p. 96), is most imperfect, and, so far as it goes, only applies to 

 the immature ? . In the adult $ there are four groups of compound spinnerets, 

 and the scale has a dark central area with a broad greyish margin.— R. Newstead, 

 Chester : November 18t?i, 1896. 



Syrflius guttatus as British. — I am very much obliged to Mr. R. C. Bradley for 

 calling my attention to his earlier captures of this insect in 1895. This insect may 

 prove to be not so scarce after all, as owing to its small size, and close resemblance 

 when on the wing to some of the commonest species, it may be easily overlooked by 

 collectors. In the March number of this volume Mr. Bradley calls attention to the 

 abundance of Syrphi in the Midlands in 1895, and I can certainly confirm this as 

 regards the New Forest district throughout the season, but especially during May 

 and June. Euphorbia amygdaloides formed a luxuriant undergrowth in the en- 

 closures, and they swarmed about its flowers, Syrphus tricinctiis being quite common. 

 This year, however, owing to the drouglit, this plant scarcely made any growth, and 

 I did not see a single S. tricinctus, whilst even the commonest species were scarce. — 

 Fredk. C. Adams, 68, St. Ermin's Mansions, Westminster : November, 1896. 



The larval habits of Baccha. — Mr. Bradley will find a notice by me on the 

 metamorphoses of Baccha {vide ante, p. 256) in the " Stettiner Entomologische 

 Zeitung, 1862, p. 412. I am not aware of any later publication. — C. R. Osten 

 Sacken, Heidelberg : November \st, 1896. 



[The notice referred to by our correspondent concerns Schiner's assertion that 

 the larva of Baccha was unknown. In it he says that in 1848 Guerin (Revue 

 Zoolog., 1848, p. 350) described a B. cochenillivora from Guatemala, the larva of 

 which feeds on cochineal and is destructive thereto. In 1854 Snellen van VoUen- 

 hoven, Handel, d. Nederl. Entom. Verein, says that B. tabida (only a var. of B. 

 elongata) has larval habits like those of Syrphus. Lastly, Glover informs him that 

 a species of Baccha, from the Southern United States, feeds on a Coccus that is a 

 pest on orange trees. — Eds.]. 



Hibernation of Vanessa cardui in England. — As some doubts have recently 

 • been expressed as to whether Vanessa cardui ever hibernates in this country, I may 

 mention that three or four years ago, on the Sunday preceding Christmas-day, I was 

 walking along the Valley Road, Streatham, on tlie east side of which is a fence formed 

 of the usual overlapping oak palings. Having — as an entomologist should — my eyes 

 on the fence, my attention was attracted by what appeared to be the end of an oak leaf 

 just protruding from where one pale overlapped another, and on closer inspection 



