THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 139 



Entomological Notes, Captures, 8fc. 



Pyrarga Eyeria, S^c. — Yesterday at St. Osyth I took five 

 specimens of Pyrarga Egeria. Tliis species is quite rare in 

 this part of the country now. It was more frequently to be 

 met with formerly, but I have never found it common, and 

 none of my numerous correspondents seem to obtain it in 

 any numbers. In most of the books on butterflies it is stated 

 to be quite a common species, and 1 have often wondered 

 whether this is one of the numerous errors which one author 

 has been in the habit of copying from another, or whether — 

 so far as the country generally is concerned — it is an actual 

 fact. Perhaps Egeria is one of the species which has become 

 scarce of late years, for, hereabouts, it seems wholly to have 

 disappeared from several localities where it was formerly to 

 be met with, and in the few places where it still lingers it is 

 so seldom to be seen that I cannot help regarding the tradi- 

 tions of its former abundance with some amount of scepticism. 

 I also took T. puuctulata yesterday ; and this morning, to 

 my surj^rise, found a fine pair of N. trepida out in one of my 

 breeding-cages. Considering that my pupae are kept out of 

 doors, this seems very early. 1 am now breeding some lovely 

 specimens of N. Carmelita and S. certala, and have recently 

 bred a considerable number of A. prodromarius, S. opima, 

 and other species. Hybernated Polychloros are very abundant 

 this season, and the same may be said of other hybernating 

 species. — William Haricood ; Colchester, April 22, 1874. 



Liparis awrijiua, b^c. — I wrote you (Entom. vii. 22) relative 

 to nests of L. chrysorrhcea (or, as I then thought, Auriflua), 

 enclosing a specimen. Since then Mr. Doubleday has 

 received some from me, and he concurs in the identification, 

 and adds, in a note to me, that he believes Auriflua is not 

 social throughout the larval life, as a rule. The colonies of 

 Chrysorrhcea do not, I find, breed up in the spring, but a new 

 abode is formed of enlarged size. Apparently they separate 

 after the last ecdysis, as might be expected. There is a great 

 diff'erence of size noticeable, some broods being now only 

 half grown, or hardly that; others past the final ecdysis. A 

 question of interest occurs to me with regard to this insect, 

 and one you can better pronounce upon than I can venture 

 to do. How far are the published accounts reliable, as regards 

 the details they profess to give, of the injury done by the 



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