J^J,2 [November, 



External parasites on Lepidopterous larva. — At page 115 of the October 

 number of the Ent. Mo. Mag., in the report of the September meeting of the Ento- 

 mological Society, is a notice of certain Acari found on a larva of Sm. tilicB, and 

 believed to be Uropoda vegetans. 



I wish to mention two apparent cases of larvce similarly infested, which have 

 occurred to me this season. On 26th June, Mr. Q-. T. Porritt sent me two full- 

 grown larvae of L. quercifolia, taken at Wicken Een ; one of these I put without 

 food in a chip-box, and on shaking it out on a piece of paper I noticed that there 

 fell with it a bright red, very long-legged mite, which ran with great swiftness ; I 

 secured it, and sent it to Mr. F. Enock, but it was dried up on the journey. On 

 September 16th, Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher sent me some larvae of Cllix spinula, on 

 one of which — a sickly one — I found a small, almost colourless, mite ; this I also 

 sent to Mr. P. Enock, but it too was spoilt for his purposes by the journey. I wish 

 to speak of these mites with caution, but I believe they were parasitic on the larvse. 

 — J. Hellins, Exeter : October 1th, 1886. 



Erroneous record of Dichrorampha distinctana in Britain. — Mr. South has 

 been good enough to send for my inspection a series of the Dichrorampha reared by 

 him from Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, from the locality in which he took the 

 specimens which I described as distinctana, Hein., in Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xviii, p. 

 278, and I find that they are, as he says, genuine well-marked consortana. He also, 

 at my request, forwarded one of the original specimens taken in 1881, and although 

 this specimen differs in having the black longitudinal streaks very much less marked, 

 I am now convinced that it also is simply our common consortana. It is, however, 

 a brightly-marked specimen, as far as the paler and silvery markings are concerned, 

 and bears a very close resemblance to German specimens of distinctana, but I see 

 that there are slight distinctions, which, if constant, will always serve to separate 

 the species. They are of almost precisely the same size and shape, except that the 

 apex of the fore-wings in distinctana is rather more squared ; its dorsal pale blotch 

 is broader at the apex, and more strongly divided, each division being again divided 

 by a black line, and the costal streaks are single, and developed into sinuous metallic 

 lines, two of which compose the bright waved margins of the ocellus, and are out- 

 lined with black. If these characters are constant, they seem sufficient to enable us 

 to discriminate the two species. The habits of distinctana in the larva-state are not, 

 I think, recorded. — Chas. G. Barrett, King's Lynn : October \Qth, 1886. 



Choragits Sheppardi, Kirby, at Kingsgate. — While collecting with Mr. Theodore 

 Wood in August, in a copse near this place, I found three specimens of Choragus 

 Sheppardi on a dead or dying tree : the insect was not under the bark, but sitting 

 on a portion of the trunk from which the bark had been removed ; Mr. Wood sub- 

 sequently took several specimens in the same place. The beetle appears to be 

 usually found low down on the tree, and hops away quickly if disturbed ; it may 

 very probably be commoner than it is usually supposed to be, as it is a very 

 inconspicuous insect, and from its habits may very easily be overlooked. — W. W. 

 FoTVLEE, Lincoln : October 12th, 1886. 



Aphodius lividus, 01., near Broadstairs. — I am just now taking this insect in 



