1875.] 115 



I collected, on some uettlcs, four cxaTiijilcs of Cajtsu.s capillaris and two lleterotoma, 

 all of -whicli I put into a small tube 50 mill, long, and 8 mill, diameter ; some time 

 after not one of them moved, although they did not appear to be dead. The odour 

 exhaled appeared to me to be the same as that of the compound ethers known and 

 employed in commerce under the name of fruit-essences ; and, corroborating this 

 impression by obsei-ving the complete insensibility of the insects, I considered ■whether 

 they themselves, after having discharged their (supposed) etherial emanations within 

 a restricted and enclosed space, had not succumbed to their aniEsthetic action ; 

 actually when they had been for some minutes under the influence of a fresh atmos- 

 phere, which was charged with a little ammonia, the Capsidce came back to life. The 

 experiment was then tried under a small bell-glass in which I had put a drop of 

 acetic ether to be volatihzed, and I obtained a result identical with the former, 

 namely, the same insensibility, the same appearance of anajsthesia, and the same time 

 for recovery. 



It seems to me, after these facts, that it may be possible to establish that the 

 emanation from certain Hemiptera is a true ether, having the power of affecting 

 even the producers themselves, but I will not venture to assert this, and shall be glad 

 to learn the opinion of such of my colleagues who are more capable than I am to 

 decide the question. — fi. PiEHRET. (Translated from the " Compte-Eendu " of the 

 Societe Entomologique de Belgique, 7th August, 1875). 



Loxops coccineus in September. — Wliilst beating for species of Psylla and Trioza 

 on the 2ud inst., I took tliis insect in as fine condition as if it had just emerged from 

 the pupa state. It was, as usual, amongst the biuiches of seeds of the ash {Fraxinus 

 excelsior), and not uncommon. — John Scott, Lee: '7th September, 1875. 



Note on the larva of Mesovelia furcata. — In the " Notiser ur Siillskapets pro 

 Fauna et Flora Fennica Forhandlingar," xi, 303, 169 (1870), Dr. John Sahlberg 

 described the larva of a species of Hemiptera taken in Karelia in 1869 on the leaves 

 of the yellow water-lily (Ntiphar ItiteaJ, of which larva the imago was unknowia to 

 him. and ho referi'cd it to a new unnamed genus intermediate between llydroessa 

 and Velia. Subsequently he had the goodness to send me an example under the 

 provisional name of Mesovelia Parra, but now, having seen recently captured 

 examples of the larva} of Mesovelia furcata, Muls., taken with the imago, I am able 

 to say that they arc specifically identical. Dr. Sahlberg was the first to see this 

 species in the larva-form, and he having no means of knowing that it was the larva 

 of M. furcata, and it being very unlike the imago, not unnaturally assumed that it 

 was a new species, but his sagacity is shown by his coiTcct reference of it to the 

 genus Mesovelia. The habitat is not confined to the water-lily, for the original 

 French example was taken among the debris of a marsh, and tiie English ones among 

 rushes growing in water. — J. W. Doroi-AS, Lee : Auyust 2i)th, 1>S75. 



Capture of Ulopa decussata and U. trivia, Oerm. — On the 21st August, at 

 Riddlesdown, where in April last I casually found a single example of Ulopa 

 decussata (vide ante p. 15), I spent some hours in searching for more at the roots of 

 the varied herbage that grows thickly round the juniper bushes, but all endeavours 

 to find another one were fruitless. But, half-an-hour before I had to leave, I saw 



