18'J5.] 95 



memory of iny lato friend Mr. Machiii, iiiduccs me to point out tliat a full and 

 correct account of tlic discovery and habits of this larva is to bo found in the 

 Transactions of the Entomological Society of London for 1886 (page 465), and a 

 partial account in the 'Entomologist,' for ISS-t." 



Mr. Elisha is too modest to say that tliese papers are by himself: that in the 

 " Transactions " being very complete. 



It is very certain that history does not actually preserve any record of any 

 conversation which took place on the discovery of the larva, and it may readily be 

 conceded that Mr. Auld has been a little misled by a too exuberant imagination. 

 Our deceased friend Machin was the first to discover the larva in this country, and 

 he decidedly was not a beetle catcher — indeed, I believe, that he was carefully 

 searciiing for cases of the extremely rare Coleophora vibicigefella when this inter- 

 esting larva presented itself to his gaze, and his open-handed liberality was illustrated 

 by tlie fact that he, as soon as possible, sent larvae to me, at King's Lynn, from which 

 the series in my cabinet was I'aised. So liberally was this beautiful insect scattered 

 abroad into other collections by him and by Mr. Elisha that rueful looks came in 

 time to be cast upon early specimens, for which fancy prices had, in some cases, been 

 paid.— Id. : 3Iarch llth, 1895. 



A small form of Nonagria lutosa. — Through the kindness of Mr. E. Dembski, 

 of Birmingham, I have had an opportunity of examining a moth, which was taken 

 by him at light in Lincolnshire a good many years ago, which he has believed to be 

 a distinct species, and which he desired to name in honour of an old friend. Un- 

 fortunately for this kindly intention the moth proves to belong to a well known 

 species, though to a variety of that species which apparently is far from being so 

 genci'ally recognised. To this last conclusion I am driven by the fact that this form 

 is one of those which come to hand, to be named, by no means unfrequently. It is 

 a comparatively small race oi Nonagria (Calamia) lutosa, Jiiib. (c>'a*«?Vo?*nw, Haw.). 

 In Its ordinary form, as is well known, this species is very nearly the largest in the 

 group, ranging from about Ij inch to over 2 inches in expanse of wings. Mr. 

 Dembski's specimen, however, is only about If inch in expanse — about the size of 

 Leucania obsoleta, and not very unlike that species — and his opinion of its specific 

 distinctness by no means an unreasonable one. In my own cabinet are specimens 

 precisely resembling it, with otliers of graduated sizes to that of the type. These 

 were taken along the banks of ditches in Norfolk, and seem always to occur where 

 there is but little of the food-plant, common reed (Ar undo phragniites), a,nd that 

 rather small in size ; full-sized specimens occurring with them, but being more 

 frequent in the neighbourhood of large reed beds and the banks of rivers. The 

 small specimens, like the large, often have their whity-brown fore-wings tinged with 

 reddish, more rai-ely clouded along the nervures with grey ; they have precisely the 

 same indistinct, curved row of black dots, and in the hind-wings usually the same 

 faintly indicated row of grey dashes. Of the identity of the two forms there can be 

 no doubt.— Id. : March IGf/i, 1895. 



Aphomia sodella. — When I was a boy (somewhere in the forties) I found a 

 nest of the pupe of this species ; it was attached to the under-side of some planks 

 which formed the top of the lower story and the floor of an upper story of a low 

 dilapidated building that had been one of the properties of an old tea garden which 



