16 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Economy of Vesper us Xatarti. — Messrs. Lichtenstein and 



Valery Mayet, who have devoted so much time to studying 

 the life-history of insects and rearing them from the larval 

 state, have just succeeded in breeding Vesperus Xatarti. 

 The larva is of a truncated pyramidal form ; it is hexapod, and 

 does not live in timber in the manner of other longicorn 

 larva3 with which we are acquainted, but quite under ground, 

 where it conducts itself exactly like the larvae of lamellicorns, 

 more especially like those of the genus Rhizotrogus. The 

 perfect insect makes its appearance in October and Novem- 

 ber; it lives through the winter, and lays its eggs in the 

 spring, sometimes in a patch under the loose bark of olive 

 trees, sometimes in the dried stalks of brambles which had 

 been hollowed out by bees, and always at a certain height 

 above the ground ; but the eggs are only deposited in 

 the stalks of the brambles for the purpose of hatching, for as 

 soon as the little larvae come out they allow themselves to 

 fall to the ground just like those of the cicadas, and bury them- 

 selves in the earth. — ' Petiles NouveUes Eniomologiques^ 

 December 15, 1871. 



Mistake in Newman''s ' Illustrated Natural History of 

 British Butierjiies.'' — The statement at p. 57 of ' British 

 Butterflies' as to Polychloros leeding on aspen, should have 

 been assigned to me, instead of to Mr. Levett. They were in 

 the greatest abundance on an aspen growing outside the 

 wall of Parham Old Park, on the road between Rackham and 

 VVigginholt. — Edward Jeniier ; Lewes, January 13, 1872. 



Two New Species of Eupithecia. — xM. Paul Mabille has 

 described two new species of Eupithecia found in the sub- 

 Pyrenean basin : — (1) Santolinata, the larva of which feeds 

 on Santolina pectinata in September and October, and the 

 imago is on the wing in May ; (2) Pyreneala, intermediate 

 between pulchellata and linariata, the larva feeds on Digitalis 

 lutea, and there is but one brood in the year. — ' P. N. £".,' 

 December 15, 1871. 



As these South-European insects are not very likely to 

 occur in England, I have not copied the description. Neither 

 of the plants mentioned as the food-plants of the larvae are 

 found in Britain, a fact which much decreases the probability 

 of the species occurring here. 



Edwakd Newman. 



