116 [October, 



Netnatus ribesii has blasted any hopes I might have had arising from the 

 lessened numbers of the currant-moths, as well as injured the prospects of any 

 caterpillars thereof that may be forthcoming, for the larvae of this saw-fly have 

 defoliated the gooseberry- and red and white currant-bushes, leaving the black cur- 

 rants untouched. I hear that this pest is widely prevalent. The natural history of 

 the Nematus is given by " Rusticus,"* in his usual graphic manner, under the head 

 of " G-ooseberry-grub," and he writes that in the year of which he speaks the damage 

 done by it was unprecedented. The only cures he mentions are smoke, picking ofE 

 the leaves while the larvae are infants, and treading the earth firmly round the bushes 

 when (but not before) ths larvae that have fed-up have descended into the ground 

 to become pupse, the emergence of the imago being then prevented by the hardening 

 of the surface. 



Sitones lineatus. — Last year the peas were infested with the larvae of this weevil, 

 and there were also a good many of the beetles ; this year the crop of peas was 

 more abundant, and yet scarcely a larva or beetle has been seen. I have reason to 

 think this immunity is exceptional. 



Plusia gamma. — Never a rare moth, this has been unusually abundant this year ; 

 at dusk the flowers of Stachys lanata often had six moths at a time flying and 

 feeding at a spike, and the same with the everlasting-peas. These two, of all the 

 flowers in the garden, were the favourites. From all sides, all through Europe as 

 well as Britain, we hear of countless swarms of these moths this year, and of the 

 serious damage to many vegetables done by the larvae. I can testify that these are 

 omnivorous, having found them on all kinds of plants. 



Zenzera cEsciili. — The larvae are not uncommon here in the stems of lilac, the 

 moth appearing early in July ; but this year I found a male just out on the 10th 

 August, he also making experience that the times are out of joint. 



Gelechia nanella appeared at the proper time, in July, on the stem of the 

 apple-tree on which I usually find them. I saw no pupa-skins sticking out of the 

 bark, as last year (see vol. xv, p. 207), so if the pupae of these moths had hibernated, 

 they had done so elsewhere than on the trunk of this tree, and if their larvae had 

 fed in May last, they did not eat the flowers, for there were none on this or any 

 other of my apple trees. 



Colias Edusa. — I saw one fly along the railway-bank next the garden on 

 the afternoon of 31st August, the only example I have seen this year. — Id. : 

 Sth September, 1879. 



On Microgaster dilutus, Ratz., and Poecilonoma longicorne, Thorns. — Several 

 correspondents have forwarded to me cocoons and insects of the Microgaster para- 

 sitic on Liparis anriflua, so that perhaps a description may not appear out of place. 



Microgaster dilutus, Eatz. (male). — Black. Long., li line; Expans. alae, 3i 

 lines. Antennae: long., 1^ line; joints, 1 — 6 tawny-yellow, with apices and re- 

 maining joints black. Wings with distinct stigma. Mandibles sickly-yellow. An- 

 terior legs and under-side of abdomen yellow, inclined at times to rufous. Posterior 

 legs rufous-yellow ; apical segments and tarsi black. Abdomen black, dusky towards 

 thorax. The imago is very variable. 



I was fortunate in capturing an insect named for me by Dr. Vollenlioven as 



* " The Letters of Rvistious," p. 56. 



