KS87. 1 1S7 



coloured males would be a slower process. This theory accounts exactly for the 

 various forms found in more northern latitudes. The difference between the flight 

 of the female when ovipositing, and when seeking a mate, is most marked, and they 

 fly much later in the evening when dropping their ova among the grass. — J. E. 

 RoBSON, Hartlepool : December, 1886. 



Mutilation in the process of transformation. — On September 9th, when looking 

 into a box in which were pupae of Pterophorus acanthodactylus, I noticed an imago 

 lying flat on the bottom of the box, and apparently dead ; on being touched, how- 

 ever, it showed signs of activity, and began to wriggle away to the best of its power. 

 I then carefully examined it, and found, to my surprise, that, although fairly perfect 

 in other respects, it was absolutely legless ; nor was the mystery solved until I found 

 the empty pupa case from which the moth had just emerged, and noticed the 

 fractured ends of the six perfectly-formed legs protruding from it. All the legs 

 were broken ofl: near the thorax, at different joints. — EtrsTACE R. Bankes, The 

 Rectory, Corfe Castle : December 3rd, 1886. 



Arctia mendica. — I would gladly learn if any entomologist who has bred or 

 taken A. mendica in Ireland, has found the male differ in colour from the smoky- 

 black form so familiar to English collectors .'' 



In the summer of 1885 a kind correspondent sent me ova of the above species 

 from Cork ; they soon hatched, and the larvse fed up quickly on dock and nettle. 

 They were most voracious, requiring their cage replenished daily ; this being ne- 

 glected one busy day when the larvse were nearly full fed, they ate their way through 

 the calico, and nearly all escaped. The few larvse remaining in the cage were taken 

 good care of. Early in last April I received a letter from my kind correspondent 

 telling me the same batch of ova he shared with me were producing him creamy and 

 smoky-white males, and he wished to know if mine were coming out the same unusual 

 colour. Mine did not emerge till fully a month later, but when they did so, the 

 males were all ci-eamy or amoky -white, and the females had very few spots of black 

 on their wings, and were very different to any English ones I have ever seen. Eggs 

 were obtained, and it is needless to say the larva? were better taken care of this 

 summer. The result is anxiously looked forward to. — E. S. Hutchinson, Grants- 

 field, Leominster : December \3th, 1886. 



On the life-history of Neptlcula headleyella, Stn., and of Fhyllocnistis saligna, 

 Zell. — The capture in June, 1885, of three specimens of the first brood, and in the 

 following August of eight or nine of the second brood of the above-named pretty 

 Nepticula, hitherto so scarce in collections (Ent. Mo. Mag., xxii, 257), gave me 

 some hope of being able to find the larvse in the autumn. This hope was realized 

 in October. The life-history proved interesting, both on account of the peculiar 



I habit of the larva, and also because, so far as I am aware, no species of Nepticula 

 has been previously found to feed on any plant of the Natural Order Labiatce. 

 The egg seems to be laid on the upper surface of a leaf of Prunella vulgaris, 

 generally near the mid-rib. The young larva makes a long and very narrow gallerv 



