NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 229 



the wing-eases, exactly as a house-fly may be seen to clean its wings 

 on a window-pane. The legs were then withdrawn, and the cases 

 raised up, the true wings expanded from beneath, and all made ready 

 for flight, which indeed I expected to see ; but, the body seeming then 

 to become aware that there was no guide, the head, its former com- 

 panion, being in possession of the eyes, the design was abandoned, the 

 wings folded up in their usual beautiful manner, and the attitude of rest 

 again resumed. This whole process was repeated with perfect regu- 

 larity at intervals of about a minute, if I rightly remember. A more 

 perfect act of a sentient creature could not be exhibited. The head 

 continued to run about, and the body to clean and expand its wings, 

 the one for about twelve, the other for sixteen hours." . . . This grim 

 curiosity is endorsed and quoted by Professor Westwood in his ' Text- 

 book' (1838). I have a vivid recollection of an unusually fine female 

 Afflossa phu/uinalis, which had been long enough on the saddle to have 

 its wings, thorax, and thoracic end of abdomen sufficiently set (and 

 presumably dead) to have been placed in the cabinet, but which never- 

 theless showed unmistakable signs of vitality about the ovipositor end, 

 from which eggs were still being protruded. And this opens up another 

 question, the discussion of which may be deferred to a future opportu- 

 nity. — H. Guard Knaggs ; London, N.W., June 29th, 1895. 



*' Jumping Beans." — It seems that there is no need to go to South 

 Africa for a "jumping bean." The cocoon of one of our own 

 ichneumon-flies will jump very respectably, for a time at any rate. 

 The ichneumon that I mean is one that infests TcBuiocampa <jracilis. 

 Having killed its host it makes an egg-shaped or rather a perfectly 

 oval cocoon, soft and white at first, but becoming hard and brown 

 afterwards, and about three-sixteenths of an inch long. If these are 

 put upon a hard surface they will jump nearly one inch in height. A 

 dozen or so of them put into a chip pill-box will keep up quite a lively 

 rattle, but they seem to get tired after an hour or two of this exercise. 

 In a state of nature they cannot possibly indulge in any athletics 

 because the cocoon is fastened by silken web or threads to a leaf or 

 some other handy substance. — W. M. Christy ; Watergate, Emsworth, 

 Hants, July 6th. [See also p. 82. — En.] 



Colour-changes in Plusia chrysitis. — Eeferring to Mr. C. N. 

 Bunn's remarks re " change of colour in Plusia chrysitis" {ante, p. 204) 

 and mine [ante, p. 159), I have taken many examples this season, some 

 showing the green-bronze, others the gold-bronze ; but I am still 

 inclined to think that the gold-bronze is the emer(jin(j colour, and the 

 green-bronze due to exposure, though, as I have previously stated, I 

 only bred a few, and all were gold-bronze ; still I think if a number 

 are bred they will show the same result. I can neither get ova nor 

 larvse here so far, or I would try the result. Though practically fresh, 

 the green-bronze specimens that I have taken this season appear not 

 so fresh as the gold-bronze specimens. — W. B. Thornhill ; Castle 

 Cosey, Castle Bellingham, Ireland, July 1st, 1895. 



Larv/e of Acronycta psi in June. — Is not June an unusual month 

 in which to find larvae of Acronycta psi / On June 26th last I took 

 one on lime [Tilia ex(,ropaa) in my garden, and another on the 29th 



ENTOII. — AUG. 1895. U 



