NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 159 



on some of the nervures in the region of the tip, and one orange spot 

 below the discoidal spot, which is larger than that of the other wing ; 

 secondaries normal female. Mr. Machin's own note of this specimen 

 is, " Unique specimen of cardamines, taken by Mr. Bellamy and 

 acquired by purchase." I would ask your insertion of this correction, 

 partly because, in order to save confusion hereafter, I, as purchaser, 

 object to having my specimens so wrongly described ; but more par- 

 ticularly because our old friend William Machin should not rest under 

 the imputation of not knowing a variety when he saw one, or of having 

 faked a variety by " removing the orange colour," although I fancy 

 Mr. Hall Avould find this process easier said than done. Will he try ? 

 As regards the remainder of Mr. Hall's note, I will only add that I 

 should much like to see a specimen of P. iihkms with " the blue spots 

 forming a conspicuous blue bar," but have little expectation of ever 

 doing so. — C. A. Briggs ; 55, Lincoln's Inn Fields, April 11th, 1895. 



Plusia chrysitis. — I took a longish series of P. chrysitis in 1893, 

 and found that a good many, say a fourth, of the specimens were 

 green-bronze and the rest golden bronze. If I remember right, I 

 pointed this out to Mr. Kane, and I think he said it was worth noting 

 and looking into. So last year I took more, but all were freshly 

 emerged, and I also bred three or four from larvfe. All these examples 

 were of the golden bronze type. Later on, in 1894, I took a few more 

 specimens when they were jxisse, and the majority were green-bronze. 

 I have therefore come to the conclusion that the green-bronze is, so to 

 speak, a fading of the golden bronze. I shall be glad to know if you 

 or your readers can bear me out in this. The two coloured bronzes 

 are quite distinct. — W. D. Thornhill ; Castle Cosey, Castle Belling- 

 ham, Ireland, March 29th, 1895. 



Those " Jumping Eggs." — By permission of Mr. Trimen, I tran- 

 scribe from his letters to me his remarks on these so-called "eggs," 

 which will, I am sure, be of interest to the readers of the ' Entomolo- 

 gist.' In reference to what has already appeared in the ' Entomologist' 

 for March and in previous numbers, Mr. Trimen says : — "It is clear 

 that Mr. Bignell is disposed to think that the larva of our ' eggs' from 

 the taai bosch (a lihics) will turn out to be some parasite on the maker 

 of the gall-like swellings on the leaves and terminal shoots. I do not 

 think that our Cape larva is a parasite, but the original and proper 

 occupant of the swelling, and the maker of the little egg-like 'cocoon,' 

 because, although I have opened a considerable number of the galls 

 and examined the occupants, I have never found anything but the 

 same species of larva (of different sizes), and no remains whatever of 

 a previous inhabitant that had been devoured or sucked to death. 

 (Where parasitic larvtB have eaten the rightful inhabitant, one always 

 finds the skin or harder parts of the victim lying round the intruder.) 

 I do not feel certain yet whether our insect is hymenopterous or 

 coleopterous, but incline to think it the latter, as does also Mr. Perin- 

 guey; and I note that you say Mr. Waterhouse also regards it as 

 probably that of a weevil. Mr. Bignell' s very interesting case of the 

 jumping cocoon of the ichneumon is altogether distinct from ours, for 

 he shows that the larva, when full-fed in the Noctua caterpillar on 

 which it preys, leaves the victim, hangs by a silken thread, and spins 



