276 [Mny, 



Ammoecius brevis, Er., at Betvdley. — Towards the end of last moiitli (March) 

 I captured three specimens of Ammoecius brevis in a sandy bank of the Severn near 

 Bewdley. Besides my previous note of its occurrence at Matlock (Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 xix, p. 117) I have seen no record of this beetle being found in an inland district. — 

 "W. G. Blatch, 214, Green Lane, Smallheath, Birmingham : April loth, 1884. 



Homalota (Leptusa) testacea, Ch. Bris., at Weymouth. — I found this exceed- 

 ingly rare beetle in some numbers on the coast near Weymouth in tlie early part of 

 last June. It occurred under stones embedded in the sands, below high water mark, 

 in company with Biglossa mersa and the two species of Phytosus, which latter it 

 somewhat resembles in appearance as well as in habit. Homalota testacea must be 

 fairly plentiful in the neiglibourhood of Weymouth, as I captured about thirty spe- 

 cimens, and could, doubtless, have taken more had not the wet weather interfered 

 with my collecting. — Id. 



Notes from Cambridge. — Tlie extremely mild winter and spring has had its 

 natural influence on insect life. The spring-feeding larvse, especially, show an in- 

 creased abundance, and this, I think, iiromiscs well for the prospects of the season 

 of 1884, especially as regards the late summer and autumn Lepidoptera. The larvae 

 of KepiaJus humuli, for instance, have been excessively abundant at roots of low 

 plants ; I never remember them more so. I have found several larva? of Noctiiina 

 in the early morning, such as Leucania lithargyria, L. pudorina, Grammesia trilinea, 

 Cerigo cytherea, as well as such species as Noctua c-nigrum and N. xanthographa, of 

 common occurrence everywhere, together with some others more worthy of mention, 

 of which I will send notes later on. — Albeet H. Watees, Cambridge : April, 1884. 



Thirsty Butterjlies. — In " Nature," for May l7th, 1883 (p. 55), appeared a 

 letter from Mr. E. Dukinfield Jones, in which the author stated that he had 

 observed a kind of moth in Brazil engaged in sucking up water in large quantity 

 through its proboscis. I may say that this strange habit is not confined to the moth 

 in question, as I have observed the same thing in two species of butterfly {Papilio 

 Orizaba, B., and Appias saia, F.),and imagine that the phenomenon is by no means 

 rare. These two butterflies are very common by the sides of streams and damp 

 places on the Ankay plain in Madagascar. 



One morning, while sitting by the side of one of these streams, I noticed the 

 Papilio, which is an insect measuring about four inches from tip to tip of its wings, 

 resting on a wet bank ; and wishing to procure it as a specimen, I approached it as 

 gently as possible, the creature being apparently so absorbed in what it was about as 

 to be totally unconscious of my proximity to it. Noticing strange and unaccountable 

 movements — sundry jerks and probings with its proboscis — I quietly sat down near 

 it in order to watch it more closely. I observed tliat every second or two a drop of 

 pure liquid was squirted (not exuded merely) from the tip of its abdomen. I picked 

 up a leaf that was lying near, and inserted the edge of it between the insect's body 

 and the ground, so as to catch the liquid. Unfortuately, I had no watch with meat 

 the time, nor means of measuring liquids ; but I reckoned that about thirty drops 



