THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 185 
red clover, so largely grown in New Zealand, is raised from 
English and continental seed, and for the same reason. An 
annual saving of many hundred thousand pounds might be 
effected, if, together with the seed, we could export the 
insect, whose office in the economy of Nature is to render 
the respective plants productive. During the past and present 
months I have captured three hundred and sixty-one bees, 
noting in every instance the flowers they were fertilizing, with 
a view to ascertain their utility as fertilizers in a commercial 
point of view.—Edward Newman. 
Cnistis Quadra.—I took a fine specimen of (Miénistis 
Quadra, at lime blossom, in my garden, on the evening of the 
10th July. The insect was a male, and appeared to have 
been out only a few hours.—A. Harold Ruston; Aylesby 
House, Chatteris, Cambridge, July 24, 1874. 
Food-plant of Erastria fuscula——The food-plant of E. 
fuscula, or how to obtain the larve, is no longer a mystery to 
me. Having taken lodgings in the vicinity where the imago 
was plentiful, I made up my mind, if it was possible, to 
obtain the larve: accordingly in the first week in September 
last I set to work, and the first night searched the bramble 
(the food-plant named by M. Guenée) for a long time; after- 
wards tried ferns, and then the heath: the first two evenings 
unsuccessfully ; the third I tried sweeping, and to my delight 
obtained about a dozen in the first hour. The question then 
became, what was the food-plant? and on careful search 
found it was grass (Molinia cerulea). After that I collected 
them without any trouble, feeding by night, about half-way 
up the blade of grass. I bred a nice series of the imago this 
spring, and tried to obtain eggs, but have failed, although I 
placed several pairs on the food-plant I had growing in a 
large pot.—G. C. Bignell; 6, Clarence Place, Stonehouse, 
Plymouth. 
Names of Inseets.—I shall be much obliged if you will be 
so kind as to name the insects I forward with this. No. 1, 
one of the Ichneumonide, I bred from a mass of long, 
fusiform, brownish cocoons, found at the base of willow 
stumps; the little bee, No. 4, I have obtained very commonly 
by sweeping in grassy places in May and June, whilst the 
Dipterous insect, No. 5, is the only one of the kind I have 
seen; from its long, sabre-shaped ovipositor it would appear 
2B 
