NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 259 



not confined to it; and I cannot say that that is its food-plant. 

 I cannot give any other reason why it should not fly at a 

 lower elevation, but I never met with it lower. I have taken 

 Mixoclia schulziana, which is abundant on our Cheshire bogs, on 

 the summit of the same mountain, at least 700 ft. higher than 

 S. irriguana; so, unless the food-plant is never found below 

 1500 ft. above the sea, I think it is possible it might be found in 

 the Black Wood of Rannoch ; but if it is, why not find it low 

 down on Craig Maigie ?— N. Cooke ; Derwent Bank, Broughton, 

 via Carlisle, Oct. 9, 1884. 



[If Arctostaphilos uva-ursi is the food-plant of Sericoris 

 irriguana, that will account for its absence from the Black Wood 

 of Rannoch, for I am not aware that that plant ever reaches so 

 low an altitude as even the higher ground of the Black Wood by 

 several hundreds of feet. — J. T. C] 



Leioptilus microdactylus. — Mr. South, when he mentions 

 the food-plant of L. microdactylus — Eupatorium cannabinum — 

 says of the larva, "Feeds on the flowers" (Entom. xv. 103). I 

 suppose he takes it for granted that it is so ; now I am not going 

 to say it does not, but what I wish to do is to record a few facts, 

 so that others may draw their conclusions. From the few 

 observations I have been able to make on this insect, I should 

 say the larva fed in the stem. By searching a number of plants 

 I have been able to discover many larvae by the appearance of the 

 flowering-stem — i. e., when the larva has entered the stem rather 

 high up I find that the main flowering-stem has been dwarfed, 

 and that the two flowering stems springing from the joint below 

 have grown above the main stem ; whereas if the stem had not 

 been injured the main flowering-stem would be above or on the 

 same plane. This, I think, is very good proof that the larva is 

 an internal feeder ; but another thing, supposing the larva fed on 

 the bloom and only entered the stem to turn to a pupa, I have an 

 idea that the plant having flowered would not make any more 

 growth; but we find where the larva is located there is always a 

 slight swelling of the stem. — Gr. C. Bignell; 7, Clarence Place, 

 Stonehouse, August 25, 1884. 



Habits of Leioptilus microdactylus Larvae. — On the 25th 

 of August last Mr. Bignell, of Stonehouse, was good enough to 

 send me larva? of Leioptilus microdactylus, together with portions 



