EMYDIA CRIBRUM. 173 



now, how Gnophria quadra answered to the call of the beating- 

 stick as it was applied to the branches of the trees ? 



I have many times found the ova of E. cribrum, and on 

 several occasions have " put them down" in likely looking spots 

 in the Forest, especially in the northern parts around Godshill, 

 &c, in the hope that my old friend the late Eev. H. G W. 

 Aubrey may have had the privilege and pleasure of establishing 

 a colony of the insect near his residence ; but I have known of 

 no instance where the insect has been taken west of the Avon, 

 and my endeavours to introduce it to the locality seem to have 

 utterly failed. This statement, however, requires qualification, 

 for in the current 'Entomologist' (ante, p. 150) my friend Mr. 

 J. H. Fowler records finding a full-grown larva at some par- 

 ticular spot in the Forest; and I can confirm his statement, as I 

 saw the larva, and, having compared it with preserved specimens 

 which both of us possess in our cabinets, I think there can be 

 no doubt about its identity. It is to me a most interesting 

 " find," as I have collected so many times in different parts of 

 the Forest, but never came across a specimen of the insect there 

 in any stage. 



In the interesting article from the pen of Mr. Bankes 

 (Entom. xxxii. 101-103) there is certainly a mistake in sup- 

 posing that E. cribrum has not been bred from British larvae. 

 Mr. Fowler's two articles (Entom. 1892, p. 269, and 1894, p. 307) 

 are sufficiently explicit, and must have been overlooked.* As to 

 the "life-history" of this particular species, surely it has been 

 fully described in some of the older entomological journals. I 

 have sent away some hundreds of the ova to different friends 

 and correspondents, and amongst others I may name the late 

 Bev. J. Hellins, of Exeter, and Mr. W. Buckler, of Emsworth— 

 an artist of no mean merit — who I am almost sure reared the 

 insect more than once ; and if the larva is figured in his work on 

 larvae — which, I believe, is now being published by the Bay 

 Society — it would be interesting to know if it was from some of 

 the ova or larvae I sent him. I reared the insect myself in 1864. 

 At that time the entomological portion of a little unpretending 

 publication named ' Young England ' was conducted by the late 

 Mr. Howard Vaughan, who asked me to send him a note on 

 E. cribrum, and in response I sent him a short article, in which 

 I briefly described what I then knew of the species ; and I make 

 the following extracts from it : — 



" The eggs are deposited round the stems of the common 

 heather in the neatest possible manner, and when first laid they 

 are of a bright golden colour, and in this respect may be mis- 

 taken for a yellow species of lichen which often grows around 

 the stems of that plant ; the eggs do not retain their yellow hue 



* Vide p. 185.— Ed. 



