W^ (October, 



The tirticating properties of certain larva. — My own experience may help to 

 elucidate this matter. A short time ago I was handling the cocoons of a certain 

 species of Bombyx, and soon afterwards experienced the most painful itching in my 

 fingers. On examination I found the cocoons everywhere covered with the short — 

 in many cases minute — stubly hairs which covered the larva previous to its finally 

 casting its skin. These made their way beneath the epidermis of the fingers and 

 there remained perfectly visible for some days ; the least pressure on the part- 

 causing the same irritation, and evidently due to the mechanica) irritation of thai 

 hairs on the sensitive papillae of the skin. I am rather of opinion that this explana- 

 tion holds good in every case; the urticating properties being always more marked 

 when the hairs are old and easily detached, at a time when the formic-acid secreting 

 glands — if such there be — at the bases of the hairs would presumably be less active 

 or probably inei-t. — N. Manders, Fort Stedman, Shan States, Birmah : June 15th,i 

 1887. 



[There appear to be two distinct kinds of urtication produced by the hairs of 

 Lepidoptei'ous larvae. In one, and possibly the most frequent, it is, no doubt, purely' 

 mechanical ; in the other a poisonous fluid is secreted by special glands and is carried 

 up the tubular hairs. — Eds.] 



Apatania fimbriata, Pict., a caddis-fly new to the British Isles. — At the' 

 beginning of August I had the pleasure of spending a week with my friend Mr. 

 J. J. King, at Killarney. As Mr. King resided the best part of the summer there, 

 he will no doubt in due time give a particular account of his work in a most inter- 

 esting district ; but, in the meantime, 1 desire to record the capture of a species of 

 T richoptera new to the British Isles, and perhaps to be placed with Saxifraga 

 umbrosa and Arbutus unedo amongst things exclusively Irish. 



On the 3rd we made an excursion to the Gap of Dunloe, chiefly with the object 

 of collecting at the series of lakes situated in that well-known Pass. At the lower i 

 end of the Black Lake, not far from the point where the river leaves it, we took* 

 single specimens of an Apatania which appears to be A. fimbriata, Pict., and on thei 

 same day at the head of the Anger Lake we got a few more examples. Theses 

 captures led us to revisit the locality on the 5th, when, at the last-named lake, we; 

 discovered the insect's head quarters, and took it in considerable numbers. On our i 

 way to the Horses' Glen the following day, it again turned up at Lough Garagarry ; 

 it was apparently common, but a drenching mist rolled down on us from Mangerton : 

 almost as soon as we had begun collecting, and drove us home. Mr. King tells me : 

 that after I left the district, he found it at other lakes commoner than ever, and I 

 think it may be assumed that the species occurs in suitable localities all over the 

 mountainous south-west corner of Ireland. 



On the Continent the species inhabits the mountains of the central region. 

 Mr. McLachlan informs me that he has always found it about weedy streams. In 

 Ireland it occurred at spots where the margins of the lakes were lined with huge 

 blocks of rock, and we took it at rest on, or flying amongst, the rocks, and by sweeping 

 the herbage on the banks. Usually at such places the only aquatic vegetation was 

 a scattered growth of the pretty Lobelia Dortmanna. — Kenneth J. Morton, 

 Carluke, N.B. : September \Gth, 1887. 



