36 LJi'iy- 



parently the favourite time. They are very sluggish, particularly the 

 females, aud sit still on leaves until touched, and then only dart down 

 to hide themselves. Curiously enough, they seem to sit by preference 

 on any other leaf rather than that of Inula, a habit which tends greatly 

 to mislead in the search for the larva. 

 Pembroke : June 13th, 1879. 



[The discovery of the larval habits of Acrolepia perlepideUa is of 

 extreme interest, as no one had previously even suspected the correct 

 food plant ; several of the genus are attached to Compositie — thus, 

 A. cariosella occurs on GnaphaUum m^enarium, A. arnicella on Arnica 

 montana, A. granitella on Inula Selenium and dysenterica, and A. soli- 

 daginis (which may perhaps be only a southern form of granltelUi) on 

 Solidago virgaurea and on Inula Conyza (Conyza squanvsa), on which 

 last-named plant I met with it at Mentone in March, 1867. A. arni- 

 cella makes, like A. perlepideUa, a firm dense cocoon, and, like it, 

 changes within the leaf ; but I believe it always mines into a fresh 

 leai a space just big enough to hold its cocoon, never changing, like 

 A. perlepideUa, within the leaf in which it has fed up. — H. T. S.]. 



Pimpla instigator. — Mr. W. H. Harwood.. of Colchester, kindly forwarded me 

 some infested pupae of Selenia lunaria, which have revealed very fine specimens of 

 Fimpla instigator, F. The larvse turned to pupae about April 20th, hatching from 

 the 5th to the 2oth of May. Out of from thirty to forty specimens not one has 

 proved a male. Tliis is a somewhat extraordinary occurrence, as those I have caught 

 on the wing have mostly been females. I am retaining a dozen pupae of lunaria, to 

 see if the females (as suggested by Dr. Vollenhoven) will hatch further on : lunaria 

 (Mr. Harwood informs me) was feeding in a canvas-covered enclosure, and the ich- 

 neumons seemed to have obtained access through the holes of the canvas, and 

 performed their mission in a most deadly manner. I have bred one very interesting 

 variety with yellow stripes across the body. Vollenhoven truly desci-ibes instigator 

 as a polyphagous insect ; I have bred or observed it out of twelve different larvae. 

 It occurred very commonly on O. Rotatoria. — S. D. Baiestow, Woodland Mount, 

 Huddersfield : lOlh June, 1879. 



Isonychia ferruginea, Albarda (1878), = /. ignota, Walker (1853). — It was 

 through a mistake on my paii; that this species was re-uamed. Walker's type is 

 rather darker than ordinary specimens, and was too imperfect for exact description ; 

 and, in addition to this, its habitat was unknown. The species consequently could 

 only be identified by examining the original example. At first inspection, the 

 differences in colour appeared to preclude the identity of the Dutch, French, and 

 German form with Walker's insect (which I conjectured to be indigenous to N. 

 America) ; but having re-compared them under a more favourable hght than before, 

 I perceive the differences to be immaterial. — A. E. Eaton, 51, Park Road, Bromley, 

 Xent.— 16M June, 1879. 



