1Q9 [December, 



S. bembiciformis is abundant in some localities, especially in woods amongst 

 sallow ; the best way to get it is to find when a wood is going to be cleared, and 

 give the wood-cutters a trifle to save the "maggots," as they call them. 



S. apiformis ; the cocoons are to be found throughout the winter in rotten 

 poplars and aspens. — E. G. Meek, 56, Brompton Eoad, S.W. : October, 1873. 



Ileliothis dipsacea at Sherwood Forest. — -This insect occurred, flying over heather, 

 at Sherwood Forest last August. The species seems entirely new to the district. — 

 Geo. T. Poeeitt, Huddersfield : November 7th, 1873. 



Natural Sixioyy of Cramhus piiieteUus. — On the 1st of August, 1872, Dr. P. 

 Buchanan Wliito, then at Eastferry near Dunkeld, kindly sent mo some loose eggs 

 of this species in a quiU, and tliey hatched 14th to 16th of the same month. 



Not knowing what food the larvae required, and happening to have then un- 

 engaged a tuft of JSriophorum vaginatiim growing in a pot, I ventured to put the 

 young larvae round the base of the grass, and then encircled the tuft with about an 

 inch of damp moss ; — I then took no further trouble with them throughout the 

 succeeding winter beyond attending to the health of the grass, in watering it and 

 exposing it to the air at intervals as the weather permitted. 



Early in May, 1873, I observed that very few fresh green shoots made their 

 appearance from the old brown tuft, so on the 9th, I turned it out of the pot to 

 examme its state. I found that the rootlets of most of the grass had disappeared, 

 but whether they had been eaten, or had rotted away in the damp peaty soil, I was 

 unable to decide. 



Of the larvae, I found, on pulling the tuft to pieces, two about a quarter of an inch 

 long, and one about half an inch, alive, and all three alike in colour and markings ; 

 there were also a dozen or moi'e of dead larvae varying from one-eighth to one- 

 quarter of an inch in length. They had been living in little silken cases, constructed 

 vertically amongst the grass in the dense tuft, about three inches above the roots, 

 and outside these cases were little collections of frass adhering to them, evidently 

 consisting of finely comminuted grassy particles. Many of these dwellings still 

 held their small defunct tenants, but in some instances they were just outside 

 of them. 



After all the living shoots had been picked out and replanted, the tuft became 

 reduced from its original diameter of five inches to no more than two inches ; I now 

 replaced the three living larvte on the Eriophorum, and soon found them engaged in 

 spinning fresh habitations for themselves ; they began by uniting two or three blades 

 together, and spinning beneath them a somewhat cylindrical case of greyish web, 

 perpendicularly attached to the grass on which they fed. From the necessity of 

 keeping the plant growing, I was unable to secure the larvae from wandering for 

 some few days, and durmg that time two of them escaped. On searcliing for them 

 on May 21st, when the gi-ass seemed dead, I found but one remaining ; for this 

 individual I provided a small piece of the root stock of Aira ccespitosa, having three 

 or four blades sprouting from it, and after a day or two I had the satisfaction to 

 find it had made a new case a.id was feeding ; on the 28th, a fresh piece of Aira 

 ccespitosa was supplied, and afterwards others at intervals of seven days up to the 

 21st of June, when I found it had spun itself up within the sheaths of the grass in 



