104 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES UPON CERTAIN PTEROPHORT. 

 By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. 



I SHOULD like to call Mr. South's attention to the following 

 point in his ' Contributions to the History of the British Ptero- 

 phoridse' (Entom. ante, p. 35), where he states : — " MliiKeseoptilus 

 zophodactylus, Dup. = loewii, ZelL Imago: — August, Larva: — 

 September, in the flowers of Erythrcea centaiireiim." I think 

 that there can be no doubt that Mr. South wishes to teach the 

 readers of the ' Entomologist ' that the larvae appear in the same 

 year, but after the imago. 



May I kindly ask whether Mr. South has ever bred imagos 

 from the larvae of loewii collected in September from tlie flowers 

 oi Erythrcea centauremn ?* or has any one ever seen the larviB or 

 pupae the same year in the months following the emergence of the 

 imagos ? When I was at Folkestone in the middle of August, 

 1886, 1887 and 1888, Mr. Austin, of that town, was breeding 

 loewii from Erythrcea flowers, but the flowers were collected in 

 the latter part of June and early July. This is the ordinary time 

 that the larvae are to be collected ; they pupate throughout July 

 and August, stay in the pupal stage about three weeks, and then 

 emerge. These are, at any rate, the data I have noted. The fol- 

 lowing year, from June to August, the larvae can be again obtained ; 

 but so far as I know, and so far as I can And out, from the time 

 of emergence of loewii in August and September to the appearance 

 of the larvae again in June, we have an almost perfect blank, 

 filled in only by the statement in Stainton's ' Manual,' of " Larva 

 in September," and the same statement in Merrin's ' Calendar ' 

 (transcribed probably from the ' Manual '), to the effect that the 

 imago occurs in July and the larva in September. I suppose we 



* Mr. Tutt is correct in supposing that the description he refers to was taken 

 from the larva I had in 1881. In 1887 I obtained two otlier larvae on September 

 2nd ; tliese agreed well with my earlier description, and ajjpeared to be full grown. 

 As soon as the opportunity of doing so occurred, I intended to take down a descrip- 

 tion of the pup.v, but just at the time I went away from home and forgot to take the 

 zophodactylus larvaa with me. When I returned on October 5th, two imagines of the 

 "plume" were out, one of which was dead and stitf. Hoping to renew acquaint- 

 ance with this larva, and obtain at least another cha^jter in its life-hisiory, I 

 purposely refrained in ray note on the species [ante, p. 3.j) from making public my 

 failure in 1887. However, as Mr. Tutt appears to desire additional information on 

 the point, I am in a position to assure him that larv* did occur in September, both 

 in 1881 and 1887. The omission of September, '? October, as dates for the perfect 

 • insect, was an unfortunate error on my part, which I especially regret, as it seems 

 to have involved others than myself. I had been told that larva; of zoplwdac- 

 tylits were to be found in June or July, and my informant was good enough to 

 promise me a supply, but they never came to hand. Mr. Porritt bred imagines from 

 August 28rd to September 1st, from larvaj he received in the middle of August. Mr. 

 Gregson and myself have had larvie as late as September ; therefore with the dates 

 given on Mr. Tutt's authority, the leindoiJterist would seem to have a good chance 

 of finding larv* of zopliodactylui whenever Enjtlinea ceiitaitreum is in dower, and 

 this is from June to September. I may add that I have taken imagines in the last 

 week of August at Ventnor. — R. S. 



