1374.] 130 



living examples, during the setison, often of these, carefully applying each iiulividunl 

 to uiy nose as eooii as caught ; and probably nearly one hundred specimens have 

 passed under this ordeal. The result is that in no one instance did any individual of 

 C.Jlava, alba, flavifrons y tenell a, aspersa, or veniraUs, e\mt any appreciable odour; 

 and I think C. vittata must be placed in the same category, although I have not this 

 season had living examples before me. C. vulgaris I regard as 'suspected,' but the 

 odour is uncertain, and, if present, almost inappreciable. C. perla andpfii/Uochroma 

 emitted a considerable amount of bad odour (and I think C. albreviata does the 

 same). C. septempunctafa was, as usual, intensely disgusting, and I believe it is this 

 species in particidar that has acquired for the whole genus a bad name, and more 

 especially because it is a garden insect, and thus comes more frequently under notice. 

 The two exceedingly rare species of Nolhochrt/sa (capifata and falvicepsj have not 

 been tested, and, indeed, have never been seen alive by me (excepting one example 

 of capitataj, but I believe they are as inodorous as are the majority of species of 

 Chrysopa. The moral to be drawn from this is : — don't condemn a whole flock 

 because there happen to be a few ' black sheep ' in it. — R. McLachlan, Lewisham : 

 Atijust, 1874. 



Abnormal appearance of Noctuaf estiva. — Some ova of Noctua f estiva, laid at 

 Rannoch at the end of last Jidy, hatched in August, and the larva), feeding up very 

 rapidly on Folygomim aviculare, began to change to pupse about the 18th September. 

 The first moth appeared on tlie 3rd October. This, for a hybeniator (in the larva- 

 state) is a pretty rapid transition. 



I also obtained ova of Aplecta occulta at the same time, and have now a number 

 of pupa;, the first larva; having entered the pupa state on the 21st September. My 

 friend Mr. Geo. Norman has, I believe, already recorded that he induced this insect 

 to dispense with its accustomed hybernation. 



Neither of the above species has been expo.scd, either as larva or pupa, to a 

 liighcr temperature than the ordbiary one of a room looking north, and without a 

 fire. — J. B. BLACKBrRN, Grassmeade, Southfields, Wandsworth, S.W. : October 

 \Uh, 1874. 



On the food-plant, ^'c, of Lygris reticulata. — This moth (known to the fol- 

 lowers of Guende's arrangement as Cidaria reticulata, though Staudiuger widely 

 separjites it from C. silaceata, which it generally resembles) was discovered some 

 ten years back in the English Lake District, but has always remained one of our 

 greatest rarities. Freyer, in Germany, had discovered the larva feeding upon Impa- 

 tien.i noli-me-tanyere, and it is a significant fact that the Lake District is the chief 

 locality for this rare plant in Britain. In the Stett. ent. Zcitung, 187 I, pi>. 237— 2 10, 

 Pastor Fuchs has a long and interesting paper on its habits. He finds the imago in 

 Prussia, in places where the Impatiens grows, from the end ui' Jid\ to th(> miildle of 

 August. The quite young larva) were observed towards the middle of October, and 

 they would appear to feed up very rapidly. The larvro much resemble the unripe 

 seed-capsides of the plant and feed upon them, though chiclly on the leaves, hiding 

 themselves in the dead leaves during simshine. But lie does not appear to have 

 been fortunate, for his pupro died shortly before the time of emergence of the imago. 

 These hints may enable some of our northern Lepidopterisls to find the insect nion' 



