320 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
growing herbs as the normal food-plants of this species. I 
have now some specimens of the larva in a breeding-cage, 
with chickweed and a branch of blackthorn (for other 
larvee) ; 1 was much surprised to see Villica forsake its proper 
food and take to feeding on the sloe. Has any breeder 
of this species observed this habit before '—R. Meldola ; 21, 
John Street, Bedford Row, May 18, 1871. 
Questions on the Honey Bee.—1. How long will the honey 
bee continue to use the same old comb for brood and honey ? 
2. Which gathers the most and best honey; the common 
honey bee or the Ligurian? 3. Has the statement of M. 
Gelien, the Swiss author of ‘ Le Conservateur des Abeilles,’ 
. asserting that four hives, placed in one domicile, eat no more 
during the winter than a single one, ever been confirmed by 
the experiments of others? 4. Do bees ever gather honey 
from poisonous plants in such a way as to deteriorate the 
quality? 5. Has it yet been ascertained whether bees send 
out scouts for the purpose of choosing a new retreat prior to 
swarming? If any of your correspondents, who take an 
interest in the honey bee, can enlighten me on some of these 
points, I shall be extremely indebted to them.—S. 7. Klein ; 
Hailsbury College, Herts. 
Slauropus Fagi on the Cotswolds.—Two specimens of this 
rarity I captured on the 13th of May in a beech and larch 
plantation on the Cotwolds, about five miles from Gloucester : 
they were at rest on the trunks of beech trees. A third speci- 
men had been taken in the same place, about a week 
previously, by Mr. Marsden. ‘This species, as far as I am 
aware, is new to the Gloucester district.—Joseph Merrin ; 
Gloucester. 
Acronycta Alni at West Stow.—Yesterday I captured a 
small, but beautifully coloured, specimen of Acronycta Alni, 
just out of the chrysalis, asleep on some palings at West 
Stow. I once took the caterpillar in the same locality on 
birch. — [Rev.] 4. H. Wratislaw; School Hall, Bury St. 
Edmunds, May 19, 1871. 
The Hornet gnawing the smooth bark of Elim—During the 
dry hot weather in August and September, 1870, | frequently 
noticed hornets (Vespa Crabo) gnawing the young and smooth 
bark from wood of eight or nine years’ growth of a variety of 
Ulmus campestris or U. montana. So busily were they 
