34 [J"^^' 



A BRIEF LIFE-HISTORY OF CANTHARIS VESICATORIA. 

 BY J. LICHTEXSTEIlSr. 



I have the pleasure of informing you that I have at last been 

 successful in breeding Lytta (Cnntharis) vesicatoria. 



I have already informed your readers of the numerous trials I 

 have been making for 20 years to follow the curious stages of de- 

 velopment of this common insect. I took the female in copula, and 

 saw her lay her eggs ; they hatched in my tubes, and by giving to the 

 young larvae {ti^iongulind) honey of Ceratina chalcites, with the bee's 

 egg or maggot over it, I saw how it first devoured the animal food, 

 then changed its skin and mandibles to eat the honey. After two 

 more moults, the larva buries in the earth, and there changes to a pupa 

 or pseudonymph, much like a Dipterous pupa. It remains under that 

 form the whole winter through. On the 15th of April a new change 

 took place ; the skin of the pupa was thrown off, and there appeared 

 another larva, white and smooth (with six rudimentary legs), which 

 developed slowly in its little cellule under the earth. The last day of 

 April another change of skin occurred, and the true nymph, in the 

 usual form of a Coleopterous nymph, made its appearance : this 

 morning, the little green-coated Spanish fly has come out of the soil, 

 and is now eating leaves of ash. The whole evolution has been effected 

 in a year. Full description and drawings will be given in the Ann. 

 Soc. Ent. Prance, but, meanwhile, I think the knowledge of the fact 

 will interest you. 



La Lironde, near Montpellier : 

 2-ird May, 1879. 



NOTICE OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE LARYA OF ACROLEPIA 

 FERLEPIDELLA. 



BY C. G. BAEBETT. 



For some time I have been greatly interested in the endeavour by 

 my friend, Mr. W. H. Grrigg, of Bristol, to find the larva of Acrolepia 

 pei'Ie^Jidella, and in his complete success ; and he now very kindly 

 allows me to make public his discovery. 



Early in March last, Mr. Grrigg went to a spot in which he had, 

 three years before, taken several specimens of the moth, and there 

 searched every visible low-growing plant, but without finding any trace 

 of larvae. He then cut several sods of the few plants that were 

 growing at the time, and placed them in a warm greenhouse, and after 

 the lapse of three weeks, was rewarded by finding mines, in which 



