NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 139 



Acherontia atropos in Renfrewshire. — In a note on this species 

 in the April part of ' Annals of Scottish Natural History,' the writer, 

 Mr. M. B. Taylor, says, " A very remarkable instance of the larva) 

 occurring in great abundance was on a farm near Port Glasgow, Renfrew- 

 shire. In this case they were obtained in potato-pits, and the farmer 

 said he could have got barrowfuls of them, they were in such abun- 

 dance." It would be interesting to know in what particular year this 

 extraordinary host of A. atropos larvae was noted, and also to learn 

 what object the said larva? may be supposed to have had in congre- 

 gating in the potato-pits. 



Note on Aulax glechoma. — As there seems to be some difficulty in 

 obtaining perfect specimens of Aulax glechoma, an account of the way 

 I obtained two may be of some use to collectors of the Cynipidaa. I took 

 the galls on June 9th, 1897, from the back of Box Hill, where ground- 

 ivy is plentiful, kept the plants in water for a day or two ; afterwards 

 they were allowed to be quite dry, and were then placed in a room 

 where there was a fire once and sometimes twice a week, until March 

 19th, when I cut open one of the large galls. I only had three. I 

 found the insect was fully developed, but barely alive, so I put it in a 

 little box near the fire, and in a short time it was quite lively and the 

 wings stiff. A week afterwards I cut open the other two ; the first 

 contained several galls with dead insects, and the other but one, which 

 was alive, like the one in the first gall. One of these specimens is in 

 our National Museum at SoudIi Kensington, and the only British 

 representative in the collection. The smaller galls contained dead but 

 fully developed insects. — F. Milton; 7, Chilton Street, Bethnal 

 Green, E., May 12th, 1898. 



Platyptilia tesseradactyla, Linn. — This species, which was re- 

 cently recorded from Ireland by Mr. Barrett (Ent. Mo. Mag. xxxiii. 25, 

 and Entom. xxx. 74), is, according to Dr. Fernald (Pteroph. North 

 Amer. p. 32), found in Massachusetts. In the monograph cited the 

 food-plants of the larva are stated to be Gnaphalium dioicum and 

 G. arenarium, and the following note on the life-history is given : — 

 "The egg is pale green, smooth and somewhat elongated, and the larva 

 in its earliest stage is clear white, with isolated hairs. Head, thoracic 

 and anal shields black. Later (in September) the dorsal and lateral 

 rows of rust-brown points appear ; and in March, after hybernating, it 

 becomes stout without increasing very much in length. The head, 

 thoracic and anal shields are dark brown ; dorsal stripe is crimson - 

 rust colour ; the subdorsal aud lateral lines are of the same colour but 

 finer. The ground colour of the body is yellowish above and rust-red 

 beneath. The adult larva is a little smaller at each end and cylindrical 

 in the middle. The head is small and black, the thoracic shields 

 small, black, divided by a light line. The colour of the body is dark 

 ferruginous brown. On the back stand whitish flecks, with two pairs 

 of black tubercles on each segment, of which the hinder are placed 

 farther from each other than those in front ; similar tubercles occur on 

 the sides, from which arise long light hairs. The anal shield and legs 

 are dark brown. These larvaa frequently vary in the tone of the 

 colour (Gartner)." 



