232 [October, 



they continue to feed upon them in preference to the tender young 

 leaves. In confinement they occasionally nibbled the young leaves, 

 but did not appear to do so in a wild state. 



On June 28th the ilex was well out in bloom, and I beat some of 

 the lower branches and obtained a few larvae, but as they were still 

 small I left them and tried again on July 9th and 12th, by which time 

 a large proportion of them had become full grown. When beating 

 such a shower of dead leaves, withered bloom and dust fell into the 

 umbrella, that it was difficult to see tbe larva?, and I bad to wait some 

 minutes until they began to move about, when they were more easily 

 detected. I fancy a great many larva? fall to the ground with the 

 withered flowers, and continue to feed up in that situation, for I 

 noticed them on several occasions amongst the fallen leaves, &c, 

 under trees I had not previously beaten. 



These larva? varv excessively, and besides obtaining examples 

 similar to the three figured on plate cxxxv of Vol. viii of Buckler's 

 Larva? of British Butterflies and Moths, I took some of a uniform pale 

 lemon-yellow (something like var. ii of the Rev. Harpur Crewe), and 

 others of a clear umber-brown with scarcely a trace of any markings. 



Mr. Crewe states that many of his larva? died when full-fed. I 

 did not notice any mortality among mine — some two hundred — they 

 appeared to be a very healthy lot, and all disappeared below ground 

 to change to pupa?, but whether they are easy to rear or not I shall 

 be better able to judge next }ear. 



Tn addition to the larva? of E. dodoneata the beating stick brought 

 down a fair number of those of Hibernia progemmata, Tceniocampa 

 stabilis, and Cosmia trapezinn. 



Dovercouvt : September \bth, 1902. 



ON SOME PARASITES OF XYLOCOPA TENUISCAPA, Westw. 

 BY E. ERNEST GREEN, F.E.S., Government Entomologist, Ceylon. 



On recently opening up a dead tree extensively tunnelled by 

 Xylocopa fmuiscapa, I found the galleries infested by numerous ex- 

 amples of the large red Meloid beetle, Cissites Debeyi, Fairm., in all 

 stages. It is said that in Europe beetles of this family deposit their 

 eggs on, or in, the ground, and that the young triungulin larva? attach 

 themselves to some passing bee by which they are introduced into the 

 nest where they undergo their remarkable hyper-metamorphosis. In 



