136 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



stung it was immune from any further attacks of parasitic flies, but 

 this, at any rate, does not seem to be the case with V. polychloros. In 

 June, 1901, while cycUng in this neighbourhood, I came across a 

 large nest of the larvae of this insect on sallow grownig by the roadside. 

 Although fairly grown — in fact, getting ready for the final moult — 

 I managed to take sixty-two home in some chip-boxes I had with me. 

 Sixty of these pupated, the other two dying from some unknown 

 cause. The same month I found a fine large pupa of this species on 

 an out-building near some elm trees ; on proceeding to take it, I 

 noticed two or three little flies crawling over it, which made me think 

 they were emerging from it, but the pupa proved to be alive by 

 violently kicking on my touching it. I also took three larvas that 

 were crawling about on the same building seeking suitable places to 

 suspend themselves ; these soon after pupated. From these sixty-four 

 pupsB sixty- three imagines were bred, one only proving to be stung, 

 being the one I took in the pupal state ; from this a swarm of little 

 flies emerged. Last year, V. polychloros being again common, my 

 father and I took a few more larvae that were about to change ; these 

 all reached the perfect state. Many of the others that were left hung 

 themselves up under the eaves of some out-houses ; these I watched. 

 One in particular suspended itself low down where I could easily 

 observe it. One morning I found that it had cast its larval skin either 

 in the night, or earlier that day, and on my looking at it again that 

 same morning I noticed one of the little flies, similar to those that had 

 emerged from the pupa I took the previous year, crawling about for a 

 considerable time all over it, and, as I suppose, laying its eggs, for on 

 magnifynig it, I saw that its ovipositor was protruding" and touching 

 the surface of the pupa. This was the first of the " wild " ones I was 

 watching to pupate, and, like the majority of them, proved to be stung. 

 I may add that all the pupse obtained were kept indoors. T'. polychloros 

 has appeared again this year, one being seen on April 3rd. — J. F. Bird; 

 "The Lodge," Cowfold, Sussex, April 6th, 1903. 



Larv^ at Sugar. — On August 29th last, when visiting some 

 sugared posts on our sandhills, I found a full-grown larva of Agrotis 

 ripcB busily engaged sucking the bait. I watched it for some time, 

 and there was no doubt that it was thoroughly enjoying itself. In the 

 woods a few miles from here I have frequently seen larvae of Lithosia 

 (jriseola on sugared trees in early summer, and on one particular tree 

 a larva came for several nights during a period of ten days. This was 

 probably the same individual. On the coast sandhoppers are some- 

 times quite a nuisance, the patches of sugar being completely smothered 

 with them. — Gervase F. Mathew; Dovercourt, Essex, April 16th, 1903. 



Note on Polia serena. — Last autumn I obtained about a hundred 

 larvae of this pretty moth from the flowers of Crepis viiens. They were 

 placed in a large tin breeding-cage, half full of earth, in which were 

 plunged two bottles to hold fresh food, and in due course they became 

 full-grown, and buried, and the box was deposited upon a shelf in my 

 breeding shed. One night last month a cat managed to get into the 

 shed, and knocked the box off the shelf, and it fell to the ground on 

 its side, and its contents were well shaken up. In trying to replace 

 things as well as I could in their original position, I came across 



