144 [June, 



Ephemeridce in brackish-water streamlets. — About a mile aouth-westwards of 

 Hammam-es-Salahin, Biskra, near a low crater-like hill of volcanic rock, and two 

 little reed-fringed pools (a place for dragons), two or three trickling streamlets cut 

 deep gullies through sandy clay. The water is salt enough to leave a taste behind 

 for an hour after rinsing the mouth, and is inhabited by minute seashore Mollusca 

 of the genus Hydrobia. It is, therefore, rather surprising to find nymphs of Ephe- 

 meridcB quite at home with these water-snails. The species most in evidence is 

 Cloeon dipterum, L. ; its nymphs are plentiful. But from the presence of a female 

 imago of CcBnis halterata, F., floating on the surface of one of the streamlets, as if 

 drowned while ovipositing, there is reason to suspect that nymphs of this species 

 also might be discovered on the clay at the bottom, if carefully looked after. — A. E. 

 Eaton, Biskra, Algeria : April, 1895. 



Further Notes from Biskra, Algeria. — Very little rain having fallen this 

 winter near Biskra, herbage is greatly dwarfed in the Ziban in comparison with the 

 growth of last year. Simultaneously several of the Lepidoptera that were in 

 abundance last spring, viz., Pyrameis cardui, Plusia gamma and Plutella crucifera- 

 rum, have appeared this season in scanty numbers. P. cardui, however, was fairly 

 common for a few weeks from the end of January. Stenopteryx hybridalis and one 

 of the Noctuce are also much fewer than they were a year ago, and are more re- 

 stricted in their topograpliical range ; tlie former was common in February (when a 

 brood issued) and March, in places. 



An additional food-plant for Papilio Machaon may be noted. Larvse occur 

 sparingly on umbels of Ferula vesceritensis, Cosson and Durieu, a plant akin to 

 Peucedanum, employed for blistering by the Arabs. 



There is no scarcity of such Lepidoptera as feed on perennial plants in the 

 Ziban. Larva; of Deilephila eupkorbicB are as abundant now as ever, and so are 

 those of the Fritillary on the LinaricB and Antirrhinum. The number of swallow- 

 tails on the wing has also undergone no diminution this season, and larvae abound. 

 —Id. 



Aepophilus Bonnairii with an abnormal antenna. — Mr. J. H. Keys, of Plymouth, 

 has had the kindness to send me three living specimens of this insect which he had 

 just captured. One of them is remarkable for having an aberrant number of joints 

 in the right antenna, there being but three instead of four, as in the other one. The 

 2nd joint is slightly lengthened and thickened, the third (now the terminal) is 

 shortened, thickened and abruptly ended. On former occasions, when noting similar 

 deformations in the Lygaidae, in which Family almost only they have been noticed 

 (vols, ii, 270, iii, 200, xiii, 180), I have ventured to think they have been caused by 

 the casual amputation of the last normal joint just before the final moult of the in- 

 tegument, and that the effort to restore the antenna has resulted in the elongation 

 of the 2nd and thickening of the 3rd joint, but nqver in the restoration of an entire 

 4th joint.— J. W. Douglas, 153, Lewisham Eoad, S.E. : May \2th, 1895. 



Echinomyia ursina, Mg., again common. — It may be worth while recording the 

 occurrence of this usually rare insect for the second year in succession in considera- 

 ble numbers at Wyre Forest during Easter. Although common, it was not in such 



