1885.] 149 



2. In another specimen of the same bee, there are hoo sub-marginal 

 cells in the right anterior-wing, and three in the left. 



Smith, in the "Entomologists' Annual" for 1858, records the capture 

 of a specimen of Sphecodes rufescens, in which the anterior-wing (he 

 does not mention which) has the second sub-marginal cell obsolete. 



3. The third instance of variation occurs in a specimen of Halictus 

 villosulus, Kirb., which has only two suh-marglnal cells on either side, 

 both anterior-wings being exactly alike, and decidedly different in 

 their neuration to any Halictus I have ever seen. 



Wotton-under-Edge : 



October 17th, 1885. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVA OF PTEROPHOEUS COSMOBAC- 

 TYLUS, B..-S.,= PUNCTIDACTYLUS, STEPH. 



BY GEO. T. POREITT, F.L.S. 



I have to thank most sincerely Mr. Eustace E. Bankes, of Corfe 

 Castle, and Mr. Nelson M. Eichardson, of Llangennech, for the trouble 

 they have taken in helping me to an acquaintance with the larva of 

 this species. 



On the 8th of August, 1884, I received from Mr. Bankes about a 

 score of larvaB which he had collected from Stachys sylvatica as 

 ^' Fterophorus acanthodactylus,'' and I made careful notes on them for 

 that species. The first two images which emerged — on August 17th 

 and 19th respectively — were acanthodactylus, but, to my astonishment, 

 the next specimen, on the 21st, and every one following, were cosmo- 

 dactylus ! I had described two distinct varieties of the larva, but as 

 they had so much in common I had never suspected they might belong 

 to different species; and being also quite ignorant as to which larvae had 

 IDroduced acanthodactylus, and Yi^iiohcosmodactylus, it became necessary 

 to wait for further specimens before anything satisfactory could be 

 ascertained. In the middle of September, Mr. Eichardson forwarded 

 to me alive two fine ? of cosmodactylus, which he had beaten out of 

 furze bushes at Aberayron, in Cardiganshire, with the information that 

 he almost always took the ? in the autumn in such circumstances, 

 and he had no doubt they hibernated in the bushes, and deposited their 

 eggs in spring or early summer. The two moths I placed in a pot of 

 growing Stachys, and various dry leaves, &c., and covered over with 

 gauze. The moths lived well into the winter, but on examining the 

 pot, I think in January or Eebruary (I have no note of the exact 

 date), I found they had died. I was, therefore, very pleased to receive 



