46 [July, 



p. 51 ; Staudinger refers the insect as a variety to Mamestra Leineri of Freyer (N. 

 B. 184, 3). It may be worth searching for on our Eastern coasts, where Artemisia 

 maritime/, grows freely. — H. T. S.] 



Coccyx Ochsenheimeriana near Thetford. — I have met with six more specimens 

 of Coccyx Ochsenheimeriana here lately among Abies cephalonica. Their habit 

 appears to be to fly about 4 o'clock in the afternoon in the sunshine, at the ends of 

 branches of the above-named fir. 



I rather hope to breed them another year from the cones, if, as I fancy, their 

 habits are similar to those of C. strobilana. It is a beautiful little species, but very 

 scarce. I have worked many days for them lately and have had men looking for 

 them for the last three weeks, with only the small result which I have mentioned. — 

 Walsingham, Merton Hall, Thetford : June 14th, 1880. 



Argyresthia cerariella (Stainton, ~Ent. Ann., 1871, p. 100, and 1874, p. 25) bred. — 

 From larvae collected last August at the Brushes, near Manchester, feeding in the 

 berries of mountain ash, I have just bred a series of Argyresthia cerariella. Plenty 

 of A. conjugella are emerging, but no intermediate forms have yet appeared ; cerariella 

 is certainly a species, the males and females copulate freely, but never yet have been 

 observed to do so with conjugella. I am sorry to say that this insect is not likely to 

 be abundant. — J. H. Theelfall, 4, East Cliff, Preston : June 2nd, 1880. 



Discovery of the winged form of Prosopistoma punctifrons. — On the 7th inst. 

 I received a hurriedly-written post-card, dated the 5th, from Dr. Emile Joly, of 

 Marseilles, announcing the fact that his colleague, M. Vayssiere, had just shown him 

 a bred sub -imago of Prosopistoma punctifrons, which proved to be one of the 

 PJphemeridce, of small size, with four wings and three caudal setse. Thus, the per- 

 sistent energy of Prof. N. Joly and his son, and of M. Vayssiere, has solved a mystery 

 that has existed since 1762, when G-eoffroy first described the aquatic condition as 

 " Le Binocle a queue en plumet," which subsequently found itself located by Latreille 

 in the Crustacea, under the name Prosopistoma punctifrons. The entomological 

 public awaits with natural impatience fuller details of this most interesting dis- 

 covery. — B. McLachlan, Lewisham, London: 18th June, 1880. 



The generic name Pachymerus in Hemiptera. — In vol. xvi, p. 260, I said that 

 " Pachymerus is not available in Hemiptera, unless it can be shown that Latreille 

 and Amyot and Serville were in error." 



Dr. Puton replies (Bull. Ent. Soc. France, No. 8, 1880, p. 83) by repeating his 

 former statement that Pachymerus, Lep. et Serv. (Hemiptera) , has priority over 

 Pachymerus, Latr. (both dated 1825), because it is cited by the latter author, and 

 this, notwithstanding, he has just before, in the same work, used the name for a 

 genus of his own ; and Dr. Puton further says that Amyot and Serville were mis- 

 taken as to dates, and accepted as prior a name which at the time (1825) was un- 

 published. Now, I put the matter hypothetically, because I gave Latreille credit 

 for knowing what he was about, and was only employing a name he had previously 

 brought into use ; and I naturally believed that Amyot and Serville also were sure 

 of their statement concerning the priority of Latreille's genus and their consequent 



