274 [May, 



which ho had described as C. (DiplosisJ nigra, Mg.j or C. pyrivora, Riley, if it was 

 thought to bo different from Meigen's species. No authentic specimens are in 

 existence, while the description is somewhat vague. This spring, both Mr. Inchbald 

 and Dr. Meade have reared the insect, the former in considerable numbers, and 

 Dr. Meade has undertaken carefully to describe it. The habits of the insect are well 

 given by several authors, but I have no books at hand to refer to. One of the earliest 

 accounts in English will, I believe, be found in " A Treatise on Insects, by Vincent 

 Kollar, translated by J. & M. Loudon, with notes by Westwood, London, 1840, 

 pp. 292 — 295." ScJimidbergcr's account is there given in full, and Professor Riley 

 gives a long extract in his paper. I will, however, quote briefly from Professor Riley's 

 own account, merely premising that in every particular it agi-ees with our insect so 

 far as I have been able to observe. " The eggs are laid in the flower-end of the fruit 

 even bofore it sets, the fruit grows and soon assumes a somewhat distorted appearance, 

 occasionally seeming abnormally round," and, I may add, generally swells much faster 

 than the uninjured fruit. "If one of these young pears be cut open, there will be found 

 from ten to thirty little yellowish-white maggots, usually attaining their full growth 

 before the interior of the pear has been entirely consumed. When full-grown they 

 leave the fruit and drop to the ground. They burrow to a greater or less depth, 

 depending on the porosity of the soil, but riircly exceed an inch. The larvae progress 

 by a series of skips and jumps by which they fling themselves an inch or more." For 

 further particulars I would refer to the papers above-mentioned, and to Dr. Meade's 

 forthcoming notice. Although the insect seems to prefer the Marie Louise pears it 

 occurs also in other pears. It would be of interest to learn whether this Pear Midge 

 is of general distribution in Britain. — E. N. Bloomfield, Guestling : April llth, 

 1888. 



Ephestia semirufa in Devon forty years ago. — It must be quite forty years ago 

 that I used to take Phycita semirufa (as it was then termed). At that time my 

 father and mother lived in a house in Old Market Street, Teignmouth : there were 

 then, and are still, a row of houses with their backs to the street, and with the gardens 

 belonging to them sloping down to the river Teign ; the walls of our garden were 

 thickly covered with ivy, evidently of many years' growth ; from this we could 

 always, in July and August, by beating, obtain one or more specimens of the Phycita, 

 which was named for us by the kindness of the late J. C. Dale, semirufa, whether 

 rightly or wrongly according to Haworth is doubtful. As the insect was much 

 wanted by those with whom we corresponded, and to whose help we owed all our 

 little stock of knowledge, many specimens were taken and distributed, but all, without 

 doubt, bad, and set after the fashion of school boys. It varied much, but the ground 

 colour was always more or less pale ochrcous, or ochreous-grey. There was no food 

 for it, such as an Ephestia would eat, save the rubbish on the wall under the ivy, or 

 the birds' nests in it, but, in common with many other insects, notably Trijjhana 

 janthina, interjecta, orbona {comes) , and 2>ronuba, it used the ivy as a shelter. Once, 

 I believe, we reared it in a store box of other Lepidoptera, wlierc the larva was an 

 unbidden guest, but this may possibly have been some other Ephestia. If the walls 

 of the old gardens are still crumbling and grown over with ivy, no doubt the insect 

 is as common as ever, but if they have been cleaned, swept, aud garnished, with equal 

 certainty semirtfa exists there no longer. The only fruits which the larva could 



