NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 45 



stripped almost all the cuticle. On the crop of mustard being 

 reaped the beetles transferred themselves to a small breadth of 

 Kohl Hahi, of which they entirely consumed, at first the leaves 

 and then the bulb, leaving nothing but the bare stalks. As far as 

 I have observed, the food of this species seems to be confined to 

 plants of the mustard tribe. The perfect insect apparently 

 hybernates, reappearing in the spring on cruciferous plants, 

 which it does not then injure to any extent, and lays its eggs. 

 The egg, elongated, oval, and of a dark orange colour, is laid on 

 the under side of the leaf. The larva feeds at first on the leaves, 

 and when these are exhausted attacks the cuticle of the stem after 

 the habit of the perfect insect, which appears in August, and 

 at once begins to feed on everything cruciferous. On the approach 

 of winter the beetles go in hybernacula, in the soil, or more 

 frequently in the old stems of the stubble of the crop where they 

 have been bred. The regular appearance of this pest of late 

 3'ears has seriously affected the production of these crops, and 

 indeed in some districts entirely precluded their being grown. — 

 Herbert Fortescue Fryer ; Chatteris. 



PoGONOCHERUs HispiDus AT FiNCHLEY. — On looking over 

 some moss, &c., obtained from the Finchley Road on Monday, 

 January 3rd, I was very pleased to find a specimen of the above 

 insect. Last April (1880) I managed to get two specimens from 

 the same locality. Amongst other species, I found Pterostichus 

 melanarius, Stilicus ajjinis, Tachyporus chrysomelinus, and Cercyon 

 terminatum, all of which were very common. — A. Sidney Olliff ; 

 30, Mornington Road, Regent's Park, N.W., January 7, 1881. 



AcosMETiA cALiGiNOSA : SUPPOSED Larv^. — At the Hagger- 

 ston Society's Exhibition last November, I exhibited what I then 

 believed to be larvae of A. caliginosa which I had reared from 

 eggs. This is recorded in the ' Entomologist' at page 25, vol. xiv. 

 I have since found that they are the larvae of Husina tenebrosa. 

 I regret this error should have occurred. — J. W. Jobson ; 

 Bournemouth, January 14, 1881. 



[It is impossible to be too careful in identifying ova. Many 

 mistakes occur through eggs being found in a box with a 

 female moth. Some collectors at once jump to the conclusion that 

 they are those of the insect in the box, and so go to the trouble 

 of rearing common species in mistake for a rarer one. — Ed.] 



