190 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



obvious ; the sound is too low to be heard except when there is 

 perfect stillness, as at night ; people seldom sit up alone at night, 

 except to nurse sick people, and as a rule people who are very ill, 

 and in such a case their nerves are often strung to the highest 

 tension ; the sound then appears to them doubly hard and 

 exaggerated, and, when the patient has died, the sound and the 

 death have naturally become connected together in the minds of 

 superstitious people. — W. W. Fowler; Lincoln, July 16, 1884. 



Cgelioxys elongata, Lep., emerging from a Cocoon. — It 

 may be interesting to note a very curious departure from the sup- 

 posed ordinary course of this bee, which I bred on July 7th from 

 a cocoon found on a thistle on June 2Gth last. A young friend, 

 who has been doing a little in Entomology for the past seven 

 years, took unto himself a wife, and during his wedding trip saw 

 a Vanessa cardui larva on a thistle ; it then struck him that he 

 may as well collect a few larvae of V. cardui, and in searching the 

 thistles he found the cocoon in question, and at once came to the 

 conclusion it was an ichneumon cocoon. Knowing my weakness 

 for the Ichneumonidse, he boxed it, brought it home, and gave it 

 to me, with another supposed ichneumon, which is without doubt 

 a species of Syrphidse. The cocoon is very compact and hard, 

 and it has resisted my efforts to soften a portion of it in spirits of 

 wine and afterwards in boiling water ; I was desirous of doing 

 this to ascertain if possible of what the outside covering consisted; 

 I very strongly suspect it is portions of the florets of a thistle : 

 it has every appearance of it, and in examining it with a strong 

 lens I can see the silken cords or web which formed the foundation 

 of the cocoon ; my young friend thinks the web was made by the 

 larva of V. cardui, the web being the cause of attracting his 

 attention to the thistle, thinking it contained a V. cardui larva. — 

 G. C. Bignell; Stonehouse, July 14, 1884. 



Wasp capturing Sesia myop^eformis. — When walking round 

 my garden this afternoon, after the storm, I struck at something 

 flying quickly, which I thought might be one of the larger ich- 

 neumons, and to my surprise found a wasp and a male Sesia 

 myop&formis in my net ; the former was doubtless carrying the 

 moth in its mouth. The clearwing was quite lively and is appa- 

 rently perfect, being none the worse for its temporary captivity. 

 —Edward A. Fitch; Maldon, July 26, 1884. 



