102 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



midtlfiorum) , which was growing in profusion on the railway 

 bank. This species has not, I think, been found since the time 

 of Curtis, when a solitary specimen was taken at Putney by the 

 present Earl of Ripon. Cameron gives as the food-plant 

 of the larvae, Convallaria mult'iflora and C, polygonata ; and the 

 continental range, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, 

 and Russia. — T. R. Billups ; 20, Swiss Villas, Coplestone Road, 

 Peckham, S.E. 



Blennocampa alternipes, Klug. — Another almost equally 

 rare species of sawfly — first taken by myself at Loughton, Essex, 

 in May, 1884, by sweeping, and described by l\Ir. Cameron in his 

 ' Monograph of the British Phytophagous Hymenoptera,' vol. ii., 

 p. 220 — was again met with by myself in Headley Lane, in May 

 last, on the plants of tlie wild raspberry, on which its larvae feed. 

 Cameron gives its continental distribution as Sweden, Germany, 

 France. — T. R. Billups. 



Hydrous piceus in London. — It may interest some of the 

 readers of the ' Entomologist ' to know that on the 30th June last 

 I caught a fine specimen of this gigantic water-beetle, near St, 

 Katherine's Docks, crawling on the pavement. Is not this a 

 peculiar locality for such an insect ? — A. J. Field ; 359, Hornsey 

 Road, Holloway, London, N. 



Cecidomyia destructor. — The first imago of the spring 

 brood of the Hessian Fly made its appearance a few days ago at 

 Errol (Carse of Gowrie, Perth) amongst Mr. Taylor's isolated 

 pupee ; this was sent to Miss Oi'merod, and by her presented to 

 Mr. Inchbald.— E. A. Fitch; Maldon, Essex, May 25, 1887. 



Practical Entomology at South Kensington. — The 

 Natural Histor}^ branch of the British Museum in Cromwell 

 Road has just received a most important donation from Lord 

 "VValsingham, consisting of a collection of Lepidoptera with their 

 larvse, mainly British butterflies (Rhopalocera) and certain 

 families of moths (Heterocera), including Sphingidae, Bombyces, 

 Pseudo-Bombyces, Noctuae, Geometridae, and Pyralidae. There 

 is also a fine series of Indian species, collected and preserved at 

 Dharmsala, in the Punjab, by the Rev. John II. Hocking; and 

 specimens of Exotic silk-producing Bombyces, in various stages 

 of their development, obtained mostly from Mons. Wailly. With 

 very few exceptions, the British larvae, which retain a most life- 

 like appearance, and are placed upon models of the plants upon 



