38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
ing to ascertain the cause of the excessive escape of gas in the house. 
So far as I am aware this is the first occasion on which the larve of 
“this beetle have been recorded as destructive to lead in any form.— 
Frank M. Lirrter; Launceston, Tasmania, November 25th, 1908. 
MerconeMA VARIUM.— With regard to the remarks of Messrs. 
Swinton and Lucas on the figure in the ‘Entomologist’ for 1880, 
p- 252, I think there is no doubt whatever that it is wrongly named. 
For many years past I have been in the habit, during the late winter 
months, of gathering a large number of oak-galls (A. terminalis, with 
a few C. kollarz) for the purpose of breeding any small moths that 
had passed the winter therein as larvee or pupe. Amongst a great 
number of insects of various orders I have always bred some M. 
varium, a clear, unspotted, green little creature. When I first bred 
them I was much puzzled to find that they were quite spotless, when, 
according to the figure (loc. cit.), they should have been spotted! 
Leptophyes punctatissima is spotted from babyhood. That Mr. Bignell 
bred the species figured I have, of course, no doubt whatever, and, as 
Mr. Lucas tells us that it is generally found on low growth, those 
Mr. Bignell bred perhaps emerged from fallen galls. 1 shall have a 
day’s gall-hunting shortly, and will pick up all the fallen ones I can 
find, and may perhaps breed ZL. punctatissuma therefrom, if it occurs 
in this neighbourhood. With regard to the Lepidoptera bred, I have 
not been very successful. The following list comprises the lot :— 
Cryptoblabes bistriga (a single specimen), Hemimene fimbriana 
(scarce, about six or seven only), Pammene argyrana (a few), P. galli- 
colana (a large number on two occasions, but very few since), P. 
splendidulana (a few each spring), Carpocapsa juliana (two only), 
Gelechia luculella (about half a dozen), Gicophora sulphwrella (not 
uncommonly), Bucculatrix ulmella (three or four), Lithocolletis sp. ? 
(a single specimen many years ago), Nepticula subbimaculella (three 
only).—A. THurNALL ; Thornton Heath, January 6th, 1909. 
CHEIMATOBIA BRUMATA.—This troublesome pest has been gradu- 
ally increasing in numbers during the past few years. Considerable 
damage was done by the larve to fruit trees in some districts in 1907 
and 1908, and I fear 1909 may prove a record in this respect. As with 
H. defoliaria, the emergence was delayed by the mild weather. They 
began to appear at the beginning of November, increased slowly at 
first, then very rapidly, reaching their greatest numbers at the end of 
November and first fortnight of December. During that period the 
woods after dark presented an extraordinary spectacle. The moths 
were in countless numbers, and many thousands of pairs could be 
seen every night. I tried to form some idea of the number of brwmata 
per acre during early December ; it certainly was not less than fifty 
thousand, and may well have been double that number. I “grease- 
banded” most of my standard fruit trees; on each of three large 
apple trees I counted over a thousand females, notwithstanding that 
many had been brushed off when renewing the grease. In many 
cases the number of brwmata caught in the grease-band was so great 
that they formed a bridge for others to walk over. They have nearly 
all disappeared, but a few pairs may still be found every evening. (In 
