NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 187 



be returned, it was put into my store-room to be ready for sending 

 back, and as I was going to put some things into it I of course 

 had to move it, and struck it on to the floor with a smart jar; 

 when lo! and behold! the ground seemed all alive in a minute 

 with these little beetles ; but to secure them was no easy matter, 

 they were so uncommonly active. I managed, however, to get 

 some two or three dozen into a wide-mouthed bottle that was at 

 hand, while many escaped, probably to turn up again. Though 

 they were not left very long in the bottle, they seem to have made 

 use of their time in disfiguring one another, as many had their 

 antennae shortened and their tarsi mutilated. How many had 

 been shaken out of the hamper on its Midland journey via 

 Birmingham and Bedford it is impossible to say, but evidently 

 there were plenty left in it. — V. R. Perkins ; 54, Gloucester 

 Street, Pimlico, S.W., July 33, 1881. 



Ph^don BETUL.E (Sharp, Cat.). — Can you, or any reader of 

 the 'Entomologist,' tell me what is the food-plant of PJicedon 

 hetulce ? In the few instances that I have met with it " at home" 

 it has invariably been on the water starwort, Callitriche verna. — 

 Thomas H. Hart ; Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent, June 22, 1881. 



[There is great confusion existing in the nomenclature 

 of our four species of Phcedon, especially in those species 

 badly named in relation to some special food-plant. PJuedon 

 hetuUe is, I believe, generally abundant in watery places, 

 feeding specially on the various Crucifercs living in such 

 situations, its larva also riddling their leaves ; it is particularly 

 partial to watercress. Of late years I have received many speci- 

 mens as being a serious pest to our mustard crops, especially in 

 the eastern counties, but have it also from Ireland (see Curtis' 

 Farm. Ins., p. 103 ; Inj. Ins. Report, 1877, p. 19, 1879, p. 35 ; 

 and Entom. xiv. 44). Kaltenbach summarises the continental 

 knowledge thus: — "P. hetulce, L. (= P. cocJilearice, Fb.), may be 

 found, according to Gyllenhall and my own observation, on 

 Veronica heccahunga ; more commonly I have beaten this species 

 in the spring from Cardamiiie (imam, growing in wet places in 

 woods. I have frequently found its larva with those of Helodes 

 heccahunga, Hellw., feeding on the underside of the leaves of the 

 ' Quellen-Ehrenpreis ' (F. heccahunga). It undergoes its meta- 

 morphosis in the earth; the pupa state only lasting fourteen 

 days. Herr Cornelius observed two generations ; the spring 



