258 



[November, 



Association of Diptera tvith Lepidopferotis larvpe.—lt may interest your 

 readers to know that in September last at Tatrafruered, in Hungary, I found 

 several specimens of a small hairy-winged midge, Ceratopogon sp. ?, sitting on the 

 backs of larvEe of BeilepUla gain. These larvae were extremely abundant in a 

 clearing in a pine forest where there were large growths of Fpilobium, and several 

 of the larvge appeared to exude from their skins a sticky substance, which these 

 small Diptera devoured.— N. Charles Rothschild, 148, Piccadilly, Octoher llth, 

 1906. 



Lygseus equestris, L., in the Isle of Sheppey. — An example of this beautiful 

 and (as British) exceedingly rare llemipteron was recently sent to me to name by 

 my friend Lieut. J. J. Jacobs, R.E. It was taken by him on the afternoon of 

 September 22nd, on the grass on one of the landslips of the Sheppey cliffs, about 

 four miles from Sheerness. Lieut. Jacobs has kindly presented me with the speci- 

 men. — James J. Walker, Oxford : October l^th, 1906. 



Ephemera {danica, 31111/. '!) male imago coupling loith the female suhimago. — 

 At the end of May, last year, I was fishing Lough Arrow, near Boyle, co. Roscommon, 

 Ireland. The day being very calm and hot I landed for lunch between one and two 

 o'clock, and during the meal noticed thousands of " spinners " ( J imago) rising and 

 falling over a low hedge about ten yards from the water. Female " Grreen Drakes " 

 (Mayfly, subimago) kept flying ashore, and as soon as ever one reached the land it 

 was pursued by one or more of the male " Spinners," which flew out to meet them, 

 and generally caught them, but not always. The mated pairs for the most part fell 

 down coupled together into the grass, and I picked up several of them, sometimes 

 an additional male was holding on to the pair. The fact of there having been very 

 strong winds and rain for the previous two or three days may have had something 

 to do with this coupling of adult males with subimagos; for along the shore of the 

 Lough dead Mayflies were literally piled up at the water's edge to a depth of two or 

 three inches, and a scarcity of female iniagos may very likely have arisen through 

 their being wrecked and drowned in such extraordinary numbers. — S. Yenour, 

 Portinscale, Keswick : Octoher 8th, 1906. 



"Melanism in Yorkshire Lepidoptera :" by G. T. Porritt, F.L.S. 

 (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section D, 

 York, 1906). 



The county of Yorkshire, and especially its south-western portion, has become 

 famous among Lepidopterists for the number of dark and even entirely black forms 

 of usually pale-coloured moths that have appeared there in recent years ; and our 

 colleague, Mr. G. T. Porritt, being happily located in the district, has devoted 

 much time and study to the investigation of this phenomenon. The outcome of 

 his researches is embodied in the above paper, which is a very valuable summary 

 of our present knowledge of this most interesting and still obscure subject. Mr. 



