108 [October, 



CffiNONETJiiA Dahlbomi, Thoms. 



This season I have captured, in Cadder Wilderness, both sexes of 

 Coenoneura Dahlbomi, and, as Herr Thomson does not mention the 

 <^, it may be useful to point out its distinctive characters. The 

 antennae are fuscous or fuscous-black, with the two basal joints white ; 

 the thorax is bright testaceous above with two broad black bands on 

 each side of the cenchri, and encircling them ; the sides are black, in- 

 termixed with brown, and across the breast there is a black band. 

 The abdomen is coloured like the thorax, with the exception that the 

 colour is paler, and the dorsal sui'face has a varying number of broad 

 black transverse bands, which, in some examples, are nearly joined to- 

 gether. The wings have the nervurcs much paler than in the other 

 sex ; those at the base of the wings, as well as the costa and stigma, 

 ax'e testaceous. In none of my specimens can I observe a trace of 

 the first sub-marginal nervure. 



The ? also varies in colouration, some examples being quite black, 

 whilst others have the thoracic sutures, and the abdomen above and 

 beneath, more or less reddish. All that I have seen have the antennae 

 quite black ; but Thomson mentions that the basal joints are often 

 pale. One of my specimens is only half the usual size. Altogether, 

 it seems to be a very variable insect, and this variability evidently 

 extends to its time of appearing, for it is met with during June, July, 

 and August. 



Tasokus glabbatus, Fallen. 



How and where the eggs are deposited by the female saw-fly I 

 have not been able to discover, although, from the fact of having found 

 larvae that could not have been more than a day or two out of the 

 egg, feeding close to the mid-rib on the under-side of the leaves of 

 the food-plant, Polygonum listorta, I suspect that they are laid there. 

 The usual habit of the larva ia to remain on the under-side of the 

 leaf, with its body curled up in a ring, having the anal segments 

 slightly elevated. In this position it eats either circular holes in tbe 

 centre of the leaf, or feeds along its edges. Two broods occur in the 

 year ; the first during June and July, the second from August to the 

 beginning of October, and this last generation appears to be the 

 larger. In my breeding pots, the larvae cither passed into the pupa 

 state exposed in the soil, or more usually bored into the cork of the 

 bottle in which they were confined. In a state of nature it is their 

 habit to bore into the stems of plants : they never, I believe, spin 

 cocoons. ^. 



