NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 99 



employed in dealing with it. Orthoptera occupies three pages, in which 

 some twenty-one species, namely three earwigs, three cockroaches, 

 seven grasshoppers, six locusts, and two crickets are enumerated. To 

 the Neuroptera and Trichoptera the next four pages are devoted, about 

 three-fourths of the known British species of dragonflies being men- 

 tioned. Hymenoptera claims nineteen pages ; Coleoptera nineteen ; 

 Lepidoptera forty ; Diptera nine ; Hemiptera five ; and the remaining 

 two pages are occupied with a brief life-history of the Aphides. It 

 will thus be gathered that something more than a mere list of names 

 is given, and even in those orders where this barren system has been 

 resorted to, much of the objection that might be taken to it is removed 

 by an introduction setting forth the chief characters of the order dealt 

 with, and calling attention to the more important species and their 

 economic bearings. The Lepidoptera is treated in narrative form 

 throughout, and forms a very interesting and complete history of that 

 order for the county of Essex. English names are used for the 

 butterflies, Sphinges, and Bombyces, and for some of the more familiar 

 species in some other orders, but, as they are invariably accompanied 

 by bracketed scientific names, identification is easy, and no exception 

 can be taken to their use ; indeed, having regard to the class of readers 

 into whose hands a county history is likely to fall, their retention is 

 perhaps an advantage. 



The name of the compiler of the lists is not definitely stated, but 

 we have good reason for believing that this portion of the work was 

 carried through by Mr. W. H. Harwood, than whom few have a better 

 all-round knowledge of this county's insects, or would be better able 

 to make full use of the information generously supplied by the nume- 

 rous field-workers and specialists whose names appear in the first page 

 of this section. 



The first sentence of the introduction concludes with the words, 

 " It is hoped that the information now given will be of value as well 

 to the student of economic entomology as to the collector," — a hope 

 that we cordially endorse, but we wonder how many "collectors" or 

 " students of economic entomology " there are in this agricultural 

 county of Essex that are in a position to obtain the costly volumes in 

 which the information is contained. It seems a pity that these inte- 

 resting lists, purposely written in a popular style, should not be obtain- 

 able as separata at a popular price. — E. A. 



Larvae of Vanessa polychloros. — In the summer of 1901 I found 

 a brood of the larvae of this butterfly feeding on one of the highest 

 branches of a balsam poplar in my garden, and, as I wanted a fresh 

 series, I shook some of them down, and placed fifty of the largest in a 

 breeding-cage. They were then nearly full-grown, and in the course 

 of a few days all had changed to healthy-looking pupae. But I only 

 bred one butterfly, the other pupae being all stung, and upon opening 

 some of them I found them crammed with the small larvfe or pupae of 

 Apanteles ; some of them contained more than a hundred. Last season 

 these larvae were unusually abundant, and on July 8th, while riding 

 between Dovercourt and Walton-on-the-Naze, I must have seen scores 

 of their nests on elms by the roadside. From these I obtained fifty 

 that were just full-grown, and fifty about a quarter-grown. The latter 

 I sleeved on a wych elm in my garden, and thought, as they were so 



