186 the entomologist. 



Nymphalin^. 

 18. Megistanis amazonicns, sp. nov. 



^ . Very similar to M. baeotus, Dbl. and Hew. Differs constantly 

 in its smaller size,* the more evenly rounded anterior end of the blue 

 band on fore wing and the narrower blue band on hind wing. Below 

 the general ground-colour is pale green, the bulk of the black markings 

 being suffused with greenish (brownish in M. baeotus) ; all the mark- 

 ings are much more sharply defined, the transverse discal pale bands 

 wider and, especially distally, more clearly defined. There is a 

 constant difference in the arrangement of the black markings in the 

 hind wing cell, these being longer and narrower and tending to form 

 long diagonal lines. 



Manicor6 district, Lower Madeira, June, 1913. 



This species is also represented in the British Museum from 

 R. Marmelos, Ega, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It would appear 

 to be commonly confused with M. baeohis in collections. It is, 

 however, at once readily separable both from this and from 

 M. japetus, Stgr., nor can I find any intermediate. Typical 

 ]\I. baeotus is confined very largely to Colombia. 



EllYCINIDiE. 



19. Helicopis cupido f. nigra, form. nov. 



(^ . Differs from typical H. cupido, L., in the entire absence of the 

 ochreous basal suffusion in the fore wing above, and in the cell of 

 the fore wing below. 



Exact locality lost, probably Rio Purus. 



(To be concluded.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



. Caratomus megacephalus, Fab. — I wonder if anyone can tell me 

 what this remarkable Chalcid, which has a head like nothing so much 

 as the Hammer-headed Shark, is parasitic upon '? It is by no means 

 common with us, though distributed through at least Denmark and 

 Sweden, where Thomson says it is scarce in the middle and south, 

 and Germany, where Nees did not find it ; nor does Gaulle record it 

 from France in 1908. With us it has been known since 1833, when 

 Walker records it as taken by Stephens in Epping Forest and by 

 himself during July, 1827, at Ripley ; the former figures it at ' lUus. 

 Hand. Suppl.,' pi. xliv, 4. But as regards its economy we have 

 advanced no jot since the very first note in 1792, ''in ligno antique," 

 and Walker found it " on palings." Usually it is noticed upon 

 window-panes, and in that situation I found it at Bentley in Suffolk 

 on July 1st, 1903, and in this house on July 81st, 1907, but it is very 

 rare here, and during my fifteen years' residence only one other had 

 occurred — on a dead willow trunk, tenanted by Fossors, on Septem- 



