280 [November, 



the result of the action of the enclosed parasites, as set forth by 

 Mr. Newstead in his note on the subject {cf. vol. ii, n. s., p. 267). 



Dalman's 0. gibber^ stated to live on poplar, birch, hazel, and other 

 foliage-trees, has the scale represented (Z. c.) of several forms, varying 

 so much that Signoret deemed there was more than one species. He 

 took one, Dalman's No. 8, which he obtained from an alder, as the 

 type, and figured it, as also did Westwood in his Modern Classification 

 of Insects, ii, fig. 118, 18. I have already adverted (Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 xxiv, 101) to this form, of which I had two examples from an oak 

 with Lecanium fuscum, and suggested that it is a variation of that 

 species ; I am now disposed to confirm this, and to believe that the 

 gibbosity of the scale was caused by the action of parasites, and also 

 that all the variations of the scale noted and figured by Dalman have 

 been consequent on parasites, possibly of more than one kind, and are 

 not of specific value ; thus, his Coccus gihher cannot be maintained 

 as a species. 



Further, in his description of Coccus ca'prece {I. c), Linne has 

 " antice obtusus et bifidus ;" now, the latter word does not apply to 

 the ordinary scale, but very well expresses the doubly-gibbous form ; 

 so it seems more than probable that he had at least some examples of 

 this kind before him, perhaps all were so. 



The identification of the parasites will be of much interest, and 

 still more so the elucidation of the mode of life pursued by them to 

 accomplish such peculiar results. I wonder if they are the larvsB of 

 the Coleopterous ^rachytarsus^ which are known to live on Coccids ; 

 indeed, Dalman found two species of the genus in his G. cyprceola 

 {cf. vol. ii, n. s., p. 98). 

 Lewisham : August, 1891. 



CALLIMORPHA HERA IN SOUTH DEYON. 



BY W. BROOKS. 



About the middle of August, 1882, 1 was staying a few days at Staplake House, 

 the residence of Captain CoUey, where also resided the children of the late S. L. 

 Waring, Esq. — it was with his two eldest sons that I had been beating the hedges 

 of both sides of a narrow lane for about half a mile ; being nearly lunch time we 

 retraced our steps leisurely down the centre of the lane ; when near to a sharp turn 

 in the lane 1 discovered a large reddish looking insect flying quite close round our 

 heads, I instantly struck at it but missed it, when it darted into the hedge, and was 

 soon dislodged, and captured, having evidently been displaced by our beating some 

 twenty minutes earlier. Each of us was so excited at our new captui'e that we beat 

 and re-beat all hedges for some considerable distance around without success for 

 nearly a week, when another, a damaged specimen, was beaten out. I may here 



