228 [March, 



Bigamy in Pl(^ti/pteryx hamula. — On the 28th of August, 1883, 1 bred a male 

 and a female imago, who paired the same evening. On the 29th of the same month 

 a fresli female had emerged. Finding that the pair of the 28th had separated, 

 on the evening of the 30th I placed the male of the 28th with the virgin female 

 of the 29th. These paired within two hours ; and, on the Slst of August and 

 1st of September, both females deposited their ova on the sides of their muslin 

 cages. After a lapse of fifteen days both broods hatched o£E satisfactorily, the 

 second brood about three or four hours earlier than the first brood. I carefully 

 marked both bags containing the ova for the purpose of observation and identifica- 

 tion. — Haeold Aechee, The Close, Ely : Jayiuary, 188i. 



Description of the larva of Fterophorus zophodactylus, Dup., = Loewii, Zell. — 

 In the middle of August last Mr. Thomas Parmiter, of Cattistock, Dorchester, 

 kindly sent me a nice supply of full-grown larvse and pupse of this species. Tlie 

 larva is slightly less than half an inch in length, and of proportionate bulk ; head 

 much smaller than the second segment, the lobes rounded and polished ; body cy- 

 lindrical and uniform, tapering a little posteriorly ; segmental divisions fairly 

 defined, and a tuft of several short hairs springs from each of the indistinct tubercles. 

 In colour there are two extreme varieties, and the larva varies between these forms. 

 Var. 1 has the ground colour a delicate pale green, strongly tinged indeed with 

 yellow ; head pale yellowish-green, the mandibles and ocelli brown ; medio-dorsal 

 stripe dark green or purple in different specimens ; sub-dorsal stripes yellow, and 

 there are two other fine but very faint yellow lines, one above and the other below 

 the spiracles ; segmental divisions also yellow ; spiracles black, very narrowly en- 

 circled with white. Ventral surface, legs and prolegs uniformly pale yellowish -green. 



Var. 2 has the ground-colour brownish-yellow ; head also brownish-yellow, 

 freckled with brown ; medio-dorsal stripe broad bright purple ; sub-dorsal stripes 

 also broad, but of a much less distinct dull pale purple, and having a fine white line 

 running through them ; a narrow purple line, edged above with white, extends along 

 the spiracular region. Ventral surface, legs and prolegs uniformly pale yellowish- 

 brown. Feeds on the flowers of Erythraa centaiirea. 



The pupa is slender, and nearly (if not quite) as long as the full-grown larva ; it 

 is of almost uniform width, the last two segments only tapering to the anal point. 

 It is glossy and cylindrical, but there is a depression on the thorax and front ab- 

 dominal segments ; the snout and top of the thorax are prominently and sharply 

 defined ; the leg-cases extend a long distance down the front of the abdomen, but 

 before the end, become detached from it. The ground-colour is yellow, but is almost 

 hid with a deep pink, which is suffused all over the surface, and almost forms a stripe 

 from the head through the abdominal segments ; wing- and leg-cases dingy olive, 

 tinged with pink. All the imagos (a fine scries) emerged from August 23rd to Sep- 

 tember 1st.— Gko. T. Poeeitt, Huddcrsfield : February bth, 1884. 



Zar(Ba fasciata ((J), and its parasite, Mesoleius sepulchralis — I have a <? of 

 this saw-fly, bred by Mr. F. Norgate, from a larva taken in the New Forest in 1879. 

 The ichneumons bred by Dr. Osborne from Zarcea are Mesoleius sepulchralis, 

 Holm., new to Britain ; I believe the J is undescribed ; it difi'ers from the ? in 

 having the face, front and middle coxae, and trochanters, tibiae and tarsi, and basal 

 ring of hind tibife, white, in other respects the sexes are very much alike. — John B. 

 BE1DGM.4N, Norwich : February 16th, 188t. 



