304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vianihiiecia Echii at Taddeuham. — I have been at my 

 old iuuinls at I'uddenhain, and spent four days at the 

 'Anchor' there, entoinolofrizing. 1 have got T3ianthcEcia 

 Echii again — a large female, taken on June 28ih : it was 

 beaten out of a hank alongside a path of rye. — {Rev). A.H. 

 JVratislaw ; School Hall, Bury St. Edmund's, June 20. 



Sceut of Nematus Saliceli. — My valued correspondent 

 Mr. Mliller mentions a character in the full-fed larva of this 

 savvfly. He writes thus: — "I handled sundry specimens of 

 tl)is larva before they were full-fed, and noticed no particular 

 odour; but when I happened to take up with my finger a 

 full-fed larva which 1 had watched tumbling down, I imme- 

 diately dropped it in disgust, as a most unpleasant odour, 

 similar to that of Acanthia leclularia [the bed-bug] struck 

 my olfactory nerves." No sooner have the larvae spun them- 

 selves cocoons than the offensive odour is lost. On this Mr. 

 Mliller tlius philosophizes : — " I am tempted to conclude that 

 this odour is given to them as a safeguard during that short 

 but most critical moment of their lives, when neilher the 

 shell of the gall nor mother earth can protect them against 

 their enemies." Here we have the " grain of wheat" in the 

 observation recorded, and no one will quarrel with the 

 accompaniment of a little " chaff." (See Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 July, 1869).—^. Newman. 



Fireflies in Kent. — The enclosed specimens of Lampyris 

 italica, or firefly, which, we are comnionly assured, is only to 

 be seen in the South of Europe, was caught in my garden 

 last night about 9 o'clock. A young barbarian, home for the 

 holidays, dealt a fatal stroke at its brilliant life before I had 

 time to plead for mercy ; but its soft yellow light, so familiar 

 to those who dwell in warmer latitudes, and so different from 

 the cold blue gleam emitted by an English glowworm, still 

 lingered in the last segment of its abdomen, when, three 

 hours later, I retired to rest. — Ashford, Kent. — ^Times'' 

 Newspaper, July 16. 



Firejlies in Surrey. — The enclosed specimen is one of 

 many that have every evening for the past week, attracted 

 by the lights, flown into my dining-room. Having been in 

 the tropics, I recognized my beautiful visitors, which had 

 been so numerous that they were denounced as nuisances. — 

 Caierham, July 17. — Id. 



