186 [January, 



20th June. This insect is a conspicuous object when at rest, owing to the sharp 

 contrast presented by the two principal hues of its coloration when viewed with a 

 moss-grown trunk as the background, and to this peculiarity the present capture is 

 doubtless due, and perhaps the rarity of the insect, as birds would not be likely to 

 pass over so conspicuous a delicacy. Two facts bearing upon the Lepidoptera, and 

 I shall have finished with the Order, as far as these notes are concerned. The first 

 relates to the supposed complete absence of wings in the female P. pilosaria. On 

 comparing series of the female N. hispidaria and P. pilosaria, it will be found that 

 the stumps of wings are as well developed in the latter as in the former in (at any 

 rate) most cases, and in all that I have examined (a good number) wing-scales could 

 be plainly detected on the rudimentary appendages by the aid of a good lens. 



As these spider-like insects possess so much in common, the coloration even 

 being very similar in some instances, a difficulty might occasionally occur in their 

 separation. The difference in the clothing of the tibise, however, as pointed out in 

 " The Manual," being of constant character is conclusive, and shows at once to 

 which of the two insects any one specimen must be referred. It seems strange that 

 error should have crept in with respect to so generally distributed a species as P. 

 pilosaria, and it at any rate fosters the suspicion that some other accepted yaei* in 

 Natural History, which have been ably used to support theories, which go quite 

 against the grain with the majority, may be found, on closer examination, to be fic- 

 titious. 



The second fact which this season has helped to establish is the ability of N. 

 chaonia to remain for two years in the pupa stage. Two males of this insect ap- 

 peared in the breeding cage, one on the 2l8t March, and the other on the 8th April, 

 from larva; which spun up in 1880. 



Turning now from that Order of insects which engrosses the attention of the 

 majority of Entomologists to one equally, if not more, deserving of study, and cer- 

 tainly far more interesting from an anatomical or structural point of view — the 

 Coleoptera, most of the species previously recorded from here have again occurred, 

 and that too pretty freely, those that were taken in the greatest quantity being 

 Homalium planum, Silpha A-punctata, Aphodius conspnrcatiis, and A.fwtidus. One 

 evening in May Calo.ioma itiqnisitor was to be counted in scores ascending the 

 trunks, and, on standing still in the forest solitude, a busy rustling was audible, 

 caused (as fancy suggests) by a multitude of these beetles crawling over the fallen 

 and decaying leaves of the past autumn, as the mature specimens sped on their way 

 from the pupa chamber to a neighbouring tree. On the following day, at the same 

 time, there were but one or two to be seen so engaged, from which it may be taken 

 as almost certain that the emergence of the bulk of this species took place in a few 

 hours, whereas, usually it may extend over several days. Such a number of examples 

 were secured in the preceding season that not more than two dozen were taken, 

 although, from the arboreal habits of the insect, it is but fair to conclude, that on 

 any bright day in June hundreds might easily have been bottled by jaiTing the 

 boughs and catching the results in an inverted umbrella, at all events, in that portion 

 of the forest, for the insect is one of local habit. As hitherto unobserved in the 

 district, I have to record the occurrence of Coryphiiim angusticolle under fir bark, 

 Lathrobiiim longulum by stone-turning, Molorchus umbel I at arum on a window cur- 

 tain, Chrysomela didymata (hitherto scarce here) freely on Hypericum in September, 



