170 tMay, 



Cove, Cornwall, in company with Ai'pus. Both species were living nnder stones 

 partially buried in muddy sand, together with such species of Mollusca as 

 Rissoa trifasciata J. Ad., R. seinistriata Mont., and Alvania cancellata da C. 

 The Ai'pophilus has, so far, been recorded from Jersey, Polperro, Mousehole, 

 Falmotith, Lyme Regis, and the Isle of Wight. Mr. E. A. Butler has very kindly 

 examined the specimen. — J. E. le B. Tomlin, Reading: Ajyril 18th, 1915. 



Vanessa antiopa in Northern Prance. — It may interest you to know that 

 thei'e were a few specimens of Vanessa antiopa (the Camberwell Beauty) flying 

 in the woods here on the 20th inst. I fancy the beautiful hot sun of that day 

 may have caused their early appearance from winter quarters. Unfortunately 

 I know little of French entomology, so am unable to say whether V. antiopa 

 is rare in France, but I am well aware of its scarcity in the British Isles. — 

 William H. Tapp, Queen's Baj's, No. 5 Cavalry Camp Depot, Rouen : 

 March 22nd, 1915. 



Thera variata Schiff. in S. W. Surrey. —Seeing that the trvie Thera variata 

 Schiff. (as distinguished from T. obeliscata Hb.) has apparently been recorded, 

 as a British insect, only from the New Forest, it maybe of interest to point out 

 that I have in my collection a number of sjjecimens taken in S. W. Sxu-rey 

 between 1906 and 1914. The majority are from Milford, near Godalming, but 

 one is labelled Hindhead. Nearly all were taken in the neighbourhood of 

 spruce-trees. I had always kept them separate from the piue-feeding species 

 (the old T. variata), but did not know till recently what else to call them. 



It may also be worth noting that the moth has two broods a year in Surrey, 

 May-June and August-September. It used to occur commonly at ivy -bloom. — 

 E. G. R. Waters, 40, Leckford Road, Oxford : March 29th, 1915. 



A note on the oviposition of Simulium maculatum M(]. — On September 2nd, 

 1913, a very fine day after heavy rains, the river Eden at Great Salkeld, 

 Cumberland, being over three feet above normal level, I saw a swarm of small 

 flies, some hundreds in number, settling on the stems and leaves of the Reed 

 Canary-grass, Phalaris arundinacea L., and creeping down below the surface of 

 the water, appearing like globules of quicksilver from the air entangled on their 

 hairy bodies. On withdrawing some of the gi-ass leaves from the water, I saw 

 that the flies were really crawling down into the water for the purpose of ovi- 

 positing, the eggs being laid in batches. In some cases each female had laid 

 her batch of eggs quite separate, but the majority of the batches were joined 

 together, forming a huge mass of eggs entirely covering the grass leaves. 



Many of the flies were over a foot beneath the surface of the Avater, and all 

 wei'e at least nine inches down before commencing to oviposit. The eggs sub- 

 seqiiently become encased in a jelly similar to frog-spawn, though I am afraid 

 the flies had made a fatal mistake in ovipositing on these grass leaves when the 

 river was in flood, as the Eden not only rises rapidly after heavy rains but also 

 returns very quickly to its normal level, and the ova would be left hi'^'h and dry 

 in the course of one or two days, so that in all probability many, if not all of 



