THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 117 



life-history of this insect was published in the * Annals of the 

 Entomological Society of France,' in 1857, by Mons. E. M. 

 Ferris : I translated and reprinted the paper in the ' Zoolo- 

 gist' for 1861, at p. Till. 



Henry Douhleday. — I am obliged for a notice of the error ; 

 it was a misprint : the fox-moth spins its long cocoon at the 

 end of March, not of September. (See Entom. iii. 94, line 7). 



Captain Hadjield. — The beetles found in the stomach of 

 the pipit are Agriotes lineatns, A. obscurus and A. Sputator. 

 The larvse of these three species are well known, under the 

 name of wireworm, as most injurious to the crops, especially of 

 wheat : the pipit is therefore a most useful bird at this season. 



T. P. N. — The useful larva of Syrphus Pyrastri, one of the 

 Diptera : its occupation on the rose-bushes is as a destroyer 

 of Aphides; the mode in which it seizes them is graphically 

 and truthfully described in Kirby and Spence, i. 265 : DeGeer 

 says it eats no other Aphis but that of the rose. 



Stephen P. Smith. — Your larva is certainly Dicranura 

 bifida or D. furcula, I cannot be certain which ; but I 

 attempted to make the difference clear (Entom. iii. 97, 98). 



J. P. : Leaf-cutter Bees. — In answer to J. P.'s inquiries 

 (and parenthetically let me observe that I am always de- 

 lighted to receive such inquiries), I may state that the speci- 

 mens sent are portions of the petals of pelargoniums, and of 

 the leaves of Fuchsias and enchanter's nightshade, the cut- 

 tings on the edges, always portions of a circle, having been 

 made by a species of Megachile, or leaf-cutter bee. Linneus 

 regarded the whole of this genus as constituting but a single 

 species, which he called Apis centuncularis ; but the late 

 venerable entomologist Kirby, and, almost simultaneously, 

 the illustrious Latreille, divided this little group into several 

 species, giving to the most familiar and abundant, the willow 

 bee of Ray, the specific name of Willughbiella. Whether 

 either of these great entomologists intended a pun I have no 

 means of ascertaining, but their assigning to the familiar 

 willow bee the Latin name Willughbiella has rather a sus- 

 picious appearance. Be this as it may, a mention of the 

 industrial labours of the willow bee, even though these may 

 be deemed by many a thrice-told tale, is quite in place in 

 the pages of the 'Entomologist.' Reaumur (vol. vi. pp. 139 

 — 48) seems to have been the first to observe and record the 



