NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 283 



tenanted leaves being wafied by the wind and settling on the 

 branches ; and its living powers appear strong, as in specimens 

 I have washed from the leaves, I have found vitality remaining 

 after immersion of more than an hour and a half, in water with 

 sufficient chloroform in it to be appreciable to taste and 

 smell. 



In the progress of search [ have sometimes seen Acari in 

 Phytoptus galls, and frequently found the Phytopti roaming 

 amongst Acari on the exterior of the leaves ; but though 

 I have found the gall mite emerging as sketched (fig. 5), and 

 also found empty pellicles showing the casting of the skin, 

 yet even in the largest size — and especially on the 12th of 

 October, when I had clear views with a quarter-inch glass of 

 the mite as a transparent object inside the loose pellicle it 

 had been about to cast — I have not seen any indications of 

 steps from the typical form of the Phytoptus to that of any 

 other Acarid. 



Isleworth, October 13, 1877. 



LIFE-HISTORY OF HELIOTHIS ARMIGERA. 



By W. H. TuGWELL. 



The eggs of this species are extremely small for the size 

 of the insect, nearly round and slightly striated, of a pale 

 yellowish green, becoming a trifle darker before hatching, 

 which takes place in five or six days. As the parent moth 

 continues to deposit a few eggs each niglit for a period of 

 fourteen days, and probably for a longer time wiieu at liberty, 

 those first deposited are hatched, and change skins once or 

 twice before the last eggs are laid. Some of the first larvae 

 feed up rapidly, and become imagos the same season ; but 

 the bulk lie over in pupa) till the following year. The young 

 larvae are very sluggish, moving little, and eat only the lower 

 surface of the leaf of the garden geranium or other food- 

 plant. For the first fortnight they content themselves with 

 this mode of feeding; they then commence to eat holes quite 

 through the leaves, and no sooner is the hole sufficiently large 

 to admit the head than they slowly crawl through it, only to 

 eat another, and again and again repeat the process, so 



