NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 45 



Heliothis armigera. — With reference to your note on H. armigera, 

 it might be interesting to you to know that I obtained from a fruiterer's 

 shop in Poole a larva, which had been received in a consignment 

 of tomatoes from Portugal (what part I do not know), which answered 

 fairly well to the description of the larva of H. armigera, and emerged 

 on Oct. 1st, 1897, as an imago of that species, though so much 

 crippled on one side as to be useless as a specimen. — W. Parkinson 

 Curtis ; Aysgarth, Longfieet, Poole, Jan. 9th, 1898. 



I was very interested in your remarks on this species, ante, p. 17. 

 I may add that I get larvae yearly from imported tomatoes. Last 

 season they were all from Canary Island fruit, and I only reared two 

 moths. — J. Arkle. 



Preoccupied Names. — It may be well to call attention to the 

 following names, lately proposed for insects, which are preoccupied. 

 It may be left to their authors to find substitutes : — 



Astatus, Peringuey, Tr. S. African Soc. viii. 237. This name 

 properly belongs to a well-known genus of Fossorial Hymenoptera. 



Harpalus fallax, Peringuey, t.c. 444. Not H. fall ax, Leconte. 



Dejeania, Oberthiir, Etudes Ent. xx. p. 40. This name properly 

 belongs to a genus of large Tachinid flies. 



Pargphanta, Karsch, Ent. Nachr. xxii. 267. The name rightly 

 belongs to a genus of Mollusca. 



Andrena sodalis, Cameron, Mem. Manchester Soc. xli. No. 4, p. 121. 

 Not A. sodalis, Smith, a Mexican species. 



Halictus picipes, Cameron, t. c. p. 101. Not H. picipes, F. Morawitz. 



Halictus amoenus, Bingham, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 451. Not H. amcenus, 

 Spinola. — T. 1). A. Cockerell ; Mesilla Park, New Mexico, U.S.A., 

 Dec. 19th, 1897. 



Prodenia littoralis in England. — On Nov. 26th last I received from 

 Mr. C. Bartlett, of Bristol, a moth which he had bred on Aug. 3rd. 

 I had no difficulty in identifying the insect as Prodenia littoralis, and 

 advised him to that effect, at the same time asking for further informa- 

 tion. Unfortunately Mr. Bartlett does not appear to be able to fix the 

 exact locality where he obtained the larva, but thinks that he found 

 it on dock at Brockley. In 1890 Mr. Boden bred an example of 

 this species from a larva found feeding on an imported tomato, and it 

 occurs to me that probably the larva which produced the imago now 

 referred to may have come into this country among tomatoes or other 

 imported produce. According to Hampson (Fauna, Brit. Ind. Moths, 

 ii. p. 246) P. littoralis occurs in the Mediterranean subregion and 

 throughout the tropical and subtropical zones of the Old World. 

 Kirby (' European Butterflies and Moths,' p. 237) states that the imago 

 is found in March and April, and the larva from November to 

 February feeding on low plants. The species was described by 

 Boisduval in 1834 as Hadcna littoralis (Faun. Ent. Madag. Lep. p. 91, 

 pi. xiii. fig. 8), and it has been redescribed twice by Guenee, and 

 under three different names by Walker ; Neuria retina, Freyer, is also 

 a synonym. — Richard South. 



