27S [Mmv, 



replenish with coah We stayed here only two days, leaving on Xovember 7th : our 

 passage from thence to Callao was pleasant encugh, but very monotonous. I saw a 

 good many specimens of the oceanic bug, Halohates, sp. ?, on November 26th, about 

 400 miles from the nearest land, and caught a few for Dr. Buchanan White. They 

 are curious little ivory-legged fellows, resembling our familiar " Gerris " in struc- 

 ture and habits, and they skip about in the net when caught in just the same manner : 

 they are apterous, and covered with silky bluish-white down, which carries down a 

 supply of air to serve them when they dive beneath the surface, which they do very 

 readily on the approach of the net. They are only seen wlicn the sea is perfectly 

 calm. I tried to keep two or three in a large bottle of sea-water, but they very soon 

 died. 



As regards our future movements, I liear we are to remain at Callao for about 

 two months, and then to go on to Tahiti : it is at present only a rumour, which I 

 hope will turn out to be true, as I should very much like to see some of the islands, 

 having done so much of the coast. — J. J. Walkek, H.M.S. " Kingfisher," Callao : 

 \Mh December, 1882. 



P.S. — I could not find any Trichopterygia at Esquimalt, though I tried more 

 than once for them. I hope to be more successful here. — J. J. W. 



On the probable identity of the species known as Agrotis tritici, aquilina, obe- 

 lisca, and nigricans. — One summer, many years ago, I beat out of some ivy which 

 covered the wall of a garden in this town, a great variety of common IfocturE, and 

 among them numerous specimens of Agrotis nigricans and tritici, and two each of 

 aqni/ina and obelisca. I remember having been much surprised at the time at the 

 occurrence of the last two species, the examples of which I still possess ; but as an 

 explanation, which will most likely equally surprise most of those who read it, I 

 send the following notice, translated from the Jahrbiicher des Nassauischen Vereins 

 fiir Naturkunde, xsxiii — xxxiv, 1880 — 1881, p. 87. 



Perhaps some of our English Entomologists may be able to corroborate the 

 truth of a proposition, which, so far as I can find, has never yet been ventui'cd here, 

 that nigricans, tritici, aquilina, and obelisca are all variant forms of one and the 

 same species. — W. Waeken, Merton Cottage, Cambridge : February, 1883. 



Jahrbiicher des Nassauischen Vereins fiir Naturkunde, xxxiii — xxxiv, 1880— 

 1881, p. 87. (Die Schuppenfliigler des kgl. Regierungsbezirks Wiesbaden and ihre 

 Entwicklungpgeschichte. von Dr. Adolf Eossler). 



"A. tritici, L., is certainly the most variable of all our Noctnce, in size, markings, 

 and colour; nay, even the antennse seem not to be quite tlie same in all examples. 

 We had an opportunity of assuring ourselves on this point very completely. The 

 devastation caused in vineyards on the frontiers of Moravia, recorded by Treitschke 

 in vol. X, pt. 2, p. 19, of Ochsenheimcr's work, has been repeated in our neighbour- 

 hood, at Ockelheim, near Bingen, in the years 1871 and 1872, to such an extent, that 

 many individuals had their vineyards destroyed. 



" Hundreds of larvae were collected hei-e in both years, of which the following 

 description was taken — Very much like those of segetum, averaging an inch in length, 

 yet very unequal in size, cylindric, stout in proportion to their length ; colour that 



