366 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



worms, so well known to fishermen ; and although they 

 would sometimes pass over these worms without stopping, 

 yet whenever they touched one with their palpi they stopped 

 abruptly, seized the worm with their mandibles, plunged 

 both these and their maxillae into the body of the worm, and 

 sucked greedily, a fact of which one might easily be assured, 

 not only by the distension of the abdomen, which in this 

 state protruded beyond the elytra, but also by the red 

 colouring which this nourishment imparted to the alimentary 

 canal. It seems probable, then, that in a state of nature 

 these insects feed on annelides, and perhaps on larvae of like 

 consistence ; but neither Arachnida nor Coleoplera seem to 

 be their prey. They run with great activity, and at first 

 sight present no evidence of blindness, passing by other 

 insects without seeming to perceive them : in passing one 

 another they do not slop, but, if they happen to touch each 

 other's antennae in their excursion, they fall to fighting 

 immediately, seizing one another with their mandibles, but, 

 after a brief turn at fighting, each passing on one side; and 

 indeed they often pass without a fight. Whenever they meet 

 with an obstacle, or attempt to enter a crack, their antennae 

 bend and turn back, without this action seeming to incom- 

 mode them. M. Pouchet having deprived one of its antennae 

 could not perceive that the loss made any difference in its 

 behaviour. They seemed entirely insensible to light; but 

 heat, or the breath, or the least shock, made them retreat 

 instantly. I have mentioned that when they passed over 

 food provided for them they paid no attention to it, unless 

 they touched it with their palpi, and that they disregarded 

 entirely contact with their antennae : this seems to indicate 

 that the sense of smell had its seat in the palpi rather than 

 the antennae. As for the antennae they seem to be, under 

 certain conditions, very imperfect organs of feeling, for when 

 they touch with these any motionless insect, they pass over it 

 just as though it were a lump of earth. — Editor of ^ Petites 

 Nouvelles Enlo77iologiques,' February 15, 1873. 



Food-plant of Diphlliera Orion. — A friend of mine who 

 has, during last July, taken this moth very plentifully in a 

 locality on the south coast (which he desires shall not be 

 mentioned) sa}S, there was in the wood not one birch tree to 

 five hundred oaks. Does not this to some degree settle the 

 question ? — E. B. Poulion ; Victoria Villa, Reading. 



