p 



1883.] * 71 



their progenitors, will have to brave the perils of their life to come, during a rest of 

 eleven months in ante-natal tombs, whence the perfected survivors will arise next 

 May to continue the yearly round of their race. Not before, not after, the time 

 when apple-blossoms come will they appear ; if they came forth at any other period 

 the race would be extinguished. Strange, yet true : a striking instance out of a 

 thousand of the care and prevision of Nature. 



To return to the larvse. I took one in my hand, in order to obtain an obser- 

 vation of its longitude, and it at once obligingly put itself into a straight position. 

 Then I saw that it had twenty legs : six thoracic, long and tapering ; twelve ventral, 

 short ; and two anal ; the head comparatively small, that is, not in proportion to the 

 fat body — not an unusual thing with obese animals — and, except this head, which 

 was of a darker hue, the whole larva was of a pale cream-white. I hope I may be 

 forgiven for mentioning cream in this connection, for there was more than met the 

 eye, the nose being involuntarily brought into requisition by a villainous scent that 

 exhaled from the not uncomely creature, which had thriven despite the defective 

 sanitary state of its dwelling. The smell was more like that of a Cossus larva than 

 that of Eau de Cologne (wliicli, in the opinion of a Scotch fish- wife, is a " bonnie 

 stink"), and, like the odour of sanctity, no doubt serves to place the possessors 

 within the cordon of protected creatures, for the bird, beetle, or other aggressive 

 animal that would eat such unsavoury morsels as these, must have a rai'e and de- 

 graded appetite. Will it be argued that the stink is the result of cumulative 

 mimicry, or that it is a property entailed by the remote ancestral proprietor of the 

 protective essence ? How did he or she invent or acquire it ? 



I have been able to identify this species by the account given of it by Professor 

 J. O. Westwood, in his paper on saw-flies, in the " Entomologist's Annual," for 

 1858, page 134. — J. W. Douglas, 8, Beaufort Gardens, Lewisham : July 2nd, 1883. 



Cleptes semiauratiis bred. — As this insect seems uncommon here, I have met 

 with no more than eight specimens ; the capture of a specimen a few days ago, 

 sufEced to recall the circumstance of my having once or twice bred the species. I 

 have an impression that I once bred a $ from the puparium of a Dipteron, obtained 

 by digging ; but, as this occurred when I did not label my specimens, there is no 

 proof forthcoming. A case which admits of no doubt, is my having dug at roots of 

 poplar, in the autumn of 1871, the cocoon of a Nematiis (probably N. cceruleocar- 

 pus, Htg.), from which emerged, on June 26th, 1872, a ? of C semiauratus. I have 

 the insect and cocoon, both labelled, and lettered in addition, at the time. The exit- 

 hole is at the side of the cocoon. — J. E. Fletcher, Worcester : July, 1883. 



Athons difformis. — This insect, which is usually looked upon as a very scarce 

 thing, has been taken near here at Guestling, in great abundance this year. I think 

 that the reason why it has not been found elsewhere for some years is, that collectors 

 have not looked for it at the right time of day, or, rather, night. I find it by 

 sweeping the standing grass in the evening. It is most numerous about 8 p.m. 

 On the 28th Jvme I obtained four dozen specimens : the next night Mr. Bloomfield 

 caught six dozen, and to-night, between us, we took over one hundred specimens. 

 Among all these there were only two or three ? . I have often swept the same 

 places in the day-time, without getting one of either sex. It has also turned up 



