TUK ENTOMOLOGIST. 301 



gardens, and it is no easy matter to keep them out of the 

 breeding-cages. While engaged the other day in cutting out 

 a pupa of T. Formicaeforme from a withy stump, several ants 

 stood close by, watching my excavations most attentively, 

 and whenever a pause was made they ran into the hole to 

 see if I had disentombed anything good for them, and they 

 would very soon have walked off my pupa if I had not. Is 

 there any other remedy for this evil than destroying the ant- 

 hills in winter i — Joseph Merrin ; Gloucester^ June 13, 

 1867. 



Dianihcecii Barrettii. — I got back from Ireland yesterday, 

 and just write a line to say I have taken several more speci- 

 mens of Dianthoecia Barrettii : I have made out the locality 

 and habits of the insect. I have found the larva; of Lilhosia 

 caniola eating lichen, in accordance with the habits of the 

 genus. — Edwin Birchall ; College House^ Bradford, June 

 19, 1867. 



Adela cuprella. — A. cuprella seems to have been scarce 

 this year on Wimbledon Common. I saw two on the '23rd 

 of April, and about a dozen on the 29th. I heard of two 

 collectors who had looked for it, but had not taken one; and 

 a third collector had only taken two females after several 

 fruitless journeys. Perhaps this scarcity may be partly 

 attributed to the continued bad weather last year between 

 the 27th of April, when the females had just emerged, and 

 the 4th of May, the effect of which was to kill nearly all the 

 insects, and no doubt many of the females before impreg- 

 nation took place. — N. C. Tuely. 



Preponderance of Males. — On the 16lh of May, at Portis- 

 head, I saw upwards of two hundred male Adela viridella, 

 but by the most careful search could only discover one 

 female. Perhaps the habits of the female are different to 

 those of the female cuprella, which always fly with the males. 

 —Id. 



Proportionate Smallness of the Male in Lepidoptera. — 

 In your report of the Entomological Society's Meeting of the 

 4th of February, Mr. Wallace gives what appears to me a 

 very singular reason for the male being smaller in Lepi- 

 doptera. Surely small males would produce small females 

 as well as small males } and how can such a rule be applied 

 to the hybernaling butterflies .? — Id. 



