270 f'^p"!' 



Airsuta, Sharp ; a few specimens, along with Sarpahis parallelus, by shaking moss 

 gi'owing on a heap of sea gravel. Polystichus in abundance, by digging in the loose 

 clayey earth, at the bottoms of posts by the road-side. 



Three days' collecting in the Chatham district, in January, February, and March 

 respectively, also produced a fair number of beetles, the best being as follows : — 

 Tracliys troglodytes, one specimen, shaken out of moss on a chalky hill-side ; the 

 moss from simdar places producing Mycetoporus nanus (several), and splendens, 

 SyncaJypta liirsuta (rarely), spinosa (in profusion), TrachypJiloeus alternans (not 

 rare), squamulatus and spinimamis (abundant), Tychius lineatulus, Mantura Mat- 

 thetvsi, &c. PediacKS dermestoides, one specimen under bark of a felled oak ; AbreBtts 

 fflohosus, not rare in the wet rotten wood of an old ash, in which I also found Quedins 

 hifuscatus ; Paromalus fiavicornis, Cerylon histeroides and J'erruyineum (both in 

 considerable numbers, the latter being the commoner), and Orchesia undulata, under 

 the loose bark of a prostrate and very rotten beech ; Asclera ccerulea, in quantity, in 

 a very large old decayed stem of ivy ; Tomictis Saxeseni, a few in a sound oak log ; 

 Platynaspis villosa, two or three hibernating in a fungoid growth on a small dead 

 beech tree. 



At Iwade, at the end of January, I met with Crepidodera puhescens in some 

 numbers, in a very limited quantity of flood-refuse on the banks of a small stream. 

 — James J. Walkee, 7, West Street, Blue Town, Sheerness : March Wth, 1873. 



Notes on rare British Coleoptera from the Manchester district. — I have obtained 

 the following species from the neighbourhood of Manchester : — 



Monohammus sartor ; one, bred by me from a larva found feeding in American 

 spruce. M. sutor ; one, given to me alive by Mr. M. Ward, by a friend of whom it 

 was taken at rest on one of the pine supports of a coal mine near Dukinfield. M. 

 dentator ; an example of this North American species, which has on several occasions 

 been taken in England, was given to me by a friend, who took it amongst American 

 pine logs in the wharf of the Bridgewater Trust. Donacia olscura and crassipes, 

 Athous rho7nbeus, JEuglenes oculattis, Dorcatoma chrysoinelina and Phloeotrya 

 Stephensi, Cheshire ; Otiorhynchus maurus and Aphodius foetidus, Staly brushes. — 

 Joseph Chappell, 1, Naylor Street, Hulme, Manchester : February, 1873. ■ 



Note on Apatura Iris and A. Ilia. — I am not surprised to see Mr. Doubleday 

 again in the field in defence of the European "species" of Lepidoptera ; but I am 

 surprised that he should speak of " the Asiatic form of A. Ilia," seeing there are 

 two very difPerent forms in Japan alone, one of them exactly like the European type, 

 the other, A. Sere, Felder, more like Mr. Tritton's insect. 



Wlien Mr. Doubleday says that A. Ilia never feeds on oak, he of course makes 

 a mental reservation in favour of Mr. Tritton's specimen, found " in the larva state, 

 upon the oak." That an unusual food-plant does in some circumstances affect the 

 character of the imago seems pretty evident. Darwin says (Variation of animals 

 and plants, vol. ii, p. 280) : " it is well known that caterpillars fed on different food, 

 sometimes either themselves acquire a different colour or produce moths different in 

 colour." That this is not mere assertion, may be seen by Michely's experiments 

 (Bull. Soc. Imp. d'Acclimat. viii, p. 563), as also by those of Mr. Qregson in the 

 cvisu oi Abraxas grossulariata {¥voc. lS.Mi. &00., January 6th, 1862), confii*med by 



