160 iJ"^y' 



of a fallen beech tree, which strangely enough was also infested by Trypodendron 

 domestic urn. The following species of the genus Epurxa have now occurred in the 

 Derwent Yalley : E. xstlva, L., E. melina, Er., E. oblonfja, Hbst. (one example 

 beneath fir bark, Winlaton Mill), E. longula, Er. (one male in Spirxa flowers, Grib- 

 side), E.florea,'Ev. (in Spirxa flowers, Winlaton Mill), E. deleta, Er., E. parvula, 

 Stm. (beneath oak bark and by beating oak), E. ohsoleta, F., E. pusilla, L., and 

 lastly, E. angustula, Er., here recorded.— Richard S. Bagnall, AVinlaton : June 

 nth, 1906. 



Mutilated Lepidoptera. — Mr. Bankes' interesting note of his capture of Tortrix 

 uni/asciana 9 united to the abdomen only of a male of the same species, reminds 

 me of a similar occurrence in my own experience which took place some forty years 

 ago. It is recorded in the " Weekly Intelligencer " for 1862, vol. i, p. 180, under 

 the title " Mutilated Lepidoptera," from which I extract * * * "But the most 

 wondrous sight of the kind in my experience was that of a female N. (?) bondii in 

 copula with the living abdomen and hind-ioings only of a male. A mouse had pro- 

 bably snapped off the other half, but sufficient vitality remained for the abdomen to 

 writhe and the hind-wings to flap. If any one doubts the fact let them ask my 

 friends McLachlan and (J. W.) Downing, who also saw it." * * # Truly history 

 repeats itself.— II. Guard Knaggs, Folkestone : June, 1906. 



[Only two years ago I found a female Larentia multistrigaria thoroughly 

 paired with a quite dead and dry male, but whether the male had died naturally 

 or been killed I do not know. He was in a very battered condition, but that may 

 have been caused by the female dragging the dead body through the grass and other 

 herbage.— a. T. P.]. 



Sesia andreniformis bred. — It may interest your readers to know that a fine 

 Sesia andreniformis emerged to-day from a larva I found mining in- the stem of 

 Viburnum lantana. My friend Mr. Sydney Webb, of Dover, suggested this plant 

 to me as likely to yield larvae of this rare insect as long ago as 1898, but only this 

 year was I successful in finding it. — N. Charles Rothschild, 148, Piccadilly, W. : 

 June 10th, 1906. 



On Proctotrypidx. — In the earlier half of the 19th century this country held a 

 lead over the rest of the world in the study of this interesting gi'oup of Kymenop- 

 tera. A. H. Haliday (prince of describers for his day) and F. Walker named and 

 described an immense number of species and must have formed valuable collections. 

 Subsequently work in the group was continued by the Rev. T. A. Marshall, and his 

 collection naust have contained most of the known British species. That collection, 

 or at any rate part of it, together with Walker's types and collection went to the 

 bottom of the sea (see Andre's " Species des Hymenopteres d'Europe et d'Algerie," 

 vol. ix, p. 136). Whether Marshall formed a second collection I do not know, but 

 it would seem from Andre that he must have done so and that it has found its way 

 to the National Museum at Buda-Pest and so become lost to British Entomologists. 

 At present there appears to be no one working at the group in Britain except 

 possibly Mr. P. Cameron, whose collection is constantly referred to in Andre, nor do 

 I know of any other real collection, though there must be some scattered throughout 



