THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. LIL] AUGUST, 1919. [No. 675 



INSECTS ON THE SEA BUCKTHOEN. 

 By Fred V. Theobald, M.A. 



On June 17th I visited the sandhills and coast on Komney 

 Bay, with the hope of finding the only sjDecies of Rhopalosiphum 

 known in Europe that I had not specimens of in my collection — 

 the Rhopalosiphum hippopJtacs of Koch, described from the Sea 

 Buckthorn {Hippophae rhantnoides) , a shrub which occurs on the 

 coast in the south-east and east of England, and I believe in the 

 north-east. It is found in patches between Eye and Littlestone 

 and at Sandwich and Deal, looking much like a willow. After an 

 hour's work I came across numerous colonies of this aphid, 

 which occurred on the young plants and much concealed on the 

 tips of the shoots. I could find none on the older bushes, at 

 least along the borders of the clumps, and the long thorns 

 prevent one going far into them. The colour of the aphid also 

 makes it somewhat difficult to detect. Only apterous females 

 occurred, with a few nymphfe. 



In company with this Aphid were countless nymphas of 

 Psylla hippophaes, Forst, which Edwards ('Hemiptera-Homop- 

 tera,' p. 243, 1896) only records from Winterton. Norfolk and 

 Deal (Scott). The nymphte brought home became alate from 

 June 24th onwards. They are not nearly as active as P. mali, 

 or P. pyricola, which is, I find, common and widely distributed 

 on the pear, but not injurious with us as it is in America. The 

 nymphfe were also difficult to detect, except that their presence 

 was shown by the mealy oii-globules so characteristic of these 

 insects. 



The most interesting insect, however, found on this shrub 

 was the Brown-Tail Moth {Euproctis chrxisorrhcea), which oc- 

 curred in thousands on all the patches. One large growth had 

 been completely stripped and looked as if it had been burnt, 

 save for the countless larval tents — both the small winter tents 

 and the large summer ones. Some of the winter tents were 

 six inches wide and equally long, and spun up in quite a different 

 manner to those I have found on the apple. Many of the larvae 

 were pupating and a few pupse already occurred. One cocoon 



ENTOM. AUGUST, 1919. Q 



