THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 143 



appearance of the grass-stalks along the extreme edge of the 

 bank: it was as if a chimney-svveep had shaken his soot-bag 

 over it and blackened every blade, which were here and there 

 also spotted with red. Closer examination showed me that this 

 appearance was cansed by minute insects, and a few strokes 

 of the sweeping-net brought up more than a half-pint of 

 small Coleoptera, a species of Thyamis and a minute Olibius 

 being the most abundant; Coccinella 7-punctata and C. 11- 

 punclata were there by hundreds, C. mutabilis, C. variabilis 

 and C. 1'2-punctata well represented, with many other species 

 not yet determined. I found that for more than a mile every 

 stalk at the edge of the bank was thus tenanted, but what 

 they were doing there I cannot imagine. 1 found it a some- 

 what difficult matter to examine and separate my captures, 

 as the hoppers, in their haste to escape from the net, covered 

 ray face and hands until I was almost as black as the grass. 

 I made up my bag and went home well satisfied with my 

 evening's captures, but quite puzzled to account for the sud- 

 den appearance of such swarms of Coleoptera. — Henri/ 

 Moncreaff ; Southsea, September 8, 1868. 



Pieris Brassica and P. Rapte settling on, wet ground. — 

 In most summers, according to my experience, these butter- 

 flies may occasionally be noticed settling on the damp 

 ground. I perfectly well remember on the 7th of last July, 

 as the water-cart passed up the Hampstead road, noticing 

 dozens of these two kinds of butterflies hurrying up from the 

 adjacent streets and gardens (the trees and plants being 

 thickly covered with dust), and settling down on the damp 

 roadway to refresh themselves by absorbing the raoisture, 

 gently fanning themselves the while with their wings, just as 

 we are accustomed to see them when engaged extracting the 

 honey from a flower, and when disturbed by the passing 

 vehicles they flew away for a short distance, and again 

 alighted on the damp road. — Charles Healy ; 1^, Napier 

 Street, Hoxton, N. 



White Butterjiies settling on damp ground. — In the 

 August number of the 'Entomologist' (Entom. iv. 119) I saw 

 a letter from one of your correspondents respecting white 

 butterflies congregating together on a small spot of ground, 

 and asking if other entomologists had observed anything of 

 the kind. Allow me to state that during the first week in 



