54 [March, 



LIFE-HISTOEY OF DREPANEPTERTX PHAL.ENOIDES, Linn. 

 BY KENNETH J. MORTON, F.E.S. 



Plate II. 



On the 23rd of October last, the Hon. N. Charles Eothschild 

 secured a specimen of Brepanepteryx phali^noides, Linn., at Chantilly, 

 Oise, France, the insect having been beaten from a hawthorn bush. 

 He has very kindly allowed me to record his capture, and has at the 

 same time placed at my disposal beautifully drawn figures of the 

 insect and of Brejimia lacertinaria, Linn., which bears so close a 

 resemblance to it, a likeness that Linne and Leach have recognised in 

 the specific and generic names given to the Neuropteron. As the 

 species is certainly one of the rarest and most interesting of the 

 Planipennia that we possess, an accormt of what is known about it as 

 a British insect, and of its habits and distribution elsewhere, may 

 be useful. 



Although I have not been able to consult many of the older 

 authors who have noticed the species, a reference to the extensive 

 bibliography in Hagen's Hemerobidarum Synopsis Synonimica (Stett. 

 Ent. Zeit., vol. xxvii, 1866, pp. 403 and 418), and Albarda's Cata- 

 logue raisonne et synon. des Nevropteres observes dans les Pays Bas et 

 dans les pays limitrophes, The Hague, 1889, pp. 307-8), shows that 

 it excited the interest of nearly all the old writers of importance, and 

 from Reaumur in 1737 down to Eambur in 1842, it seems to have 

 been figured more than half-a-dozen times. The following notes will 

 sei-ve to give an idea of its distribution on the Continent : 



Eambur (" Insectes Nevropteres," Paris, 1842, PI. 9, fig. 6, p. 419) 

 speaking no doubt of its occurrence in France, says : " Habite les bois 

 ou on le rencontre toute I'annee niais assez rarement." 



Wallengren (Skandinaviens Neuroptera, Kongi. Svenska Vetens- 

 kaps-Akademiens Handl., Band 9, No. 8, Stockholm, 1871) records 

 the insect as rare but wide spread, occurring in July and August in 

 Northern and North-Western Scania, Smiiland and Ostergothlaud. 

 He refers to Linne' s locality, near Upsala, and to that quoted by 

 Zetterstedt, near Ofvertornea. 



Brauer (Die Neuropteren Eiiropas und insbesondere Oesterreich 

 mit Eiicksicht auf ihre geographische Verbreitimg, Wien, 1876) 

 quotes France, England, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Eussia, Sweden, 

 Switzerland, Styria and Carintliia. 



Schoch (Neui-optera Helvetia, 1885) says it occurs at Zurich and 

 Wetzikon ; always singly and rare. Dr. Eis {in lift.) informs me that 



