]22 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



are much richer and darker in colour than any English spe- 

 cinjens I have seen.— i^. Bond; July 13, 1868. 



Urapterijx sambucarla in the Counti/ IVicklow. — IT. sam- 

 bucaria is very plentiful here this summer; when 1 say 

 plenty I mean that I have seen at least a dozen flying about 

 here in a space of less than ten acres. I never saw it in 

 Ireland till now, and I think you may like to hear of one 

 fixed place where it has been seen. I have caught two, and 

 do not intend to catch any more, hoping they may make a 

 settlement here. — Martha Ellison ; Valle Pads, Neivtown, 

 Mount Kennedy, Co. Wicklow, Ireland, July 6, 1868, 



Moths in Beehives. — Last week my son brought me some 

 cocoons, caterpillars, and a perfect insect, taken from the 

 inside of a beehive, and he asked me to go and see the 

 destruction they had made in the hive ; I accordingly went, 

 and never did I witness such a sight before : there could not 

 have been less than between two and three thousand, pro- 

 bably many more, caterpillars and cocoons, with an occa- 

 sional perfect insect ; the cocoons were spun up all round 

 the interior of the hive, in some places upwards of three 

 inches thick, packed in, in all sorts of shapes, the entrance 

 also being couipletely blocked u]), so that they would in all 

 probability have perished ; the caterpillars were found in 

 groups, behind the cocoons, next to the hive, as if abont to 

 change, although some of them were not more than half- 

 grown : 1 should like to have seen them before they had been 

 touched, but the person who owned the hive had taken them 

 out and thrown them down to feed the poultry, and he 

 assured me that three or four hens had filled their crops 

 before T came : it was necessary to keep stamping our feet to 

 prevent them crawling about us ; if we stood still a minute 

 there would be several crawling over our boots. I took 

 nearly half a pint of cocoons home and placed them in a box, 

 and the moths are now coming out at the rate of four or five 

 each day. Such a sight never occurring to me before, and 

 thinking it might be an unusual thing, I feel it my duty to 

 send you word about it. Should you like to have a few 

 cocoons, by sending word you can have them. It is almost 

 unnecessary to say that the bees were all dead. — J. King; 

 Lanyford Road, Bujyleswade, Beds, July 10, 1868. 

 [The moth sent is Galleria cerclla.— j^. Newman.] 



