NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 23 



The colour, and especially the two conspicuous black spots at 

 the extremity of the pronotum, besides the form of the ovipositor, 

 will sufficiently distinguish the present species from P. dregii. 

 From Epliippiger, which belongs to another family, the struc- 

 tural characters, such as the open foramina and the two spines 

 on the prosternum, will distinguish it at a glance. 



One pair of this rather remarkable insect, which will be 

 figured in a forthcoming part of Mr. Distant's ' Insecta Trans- 

 vaaliensia.' 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Aberration op Vanessa urtic^. — The Eeverend Archibald Day 

 has been good enough to send for inspection a well-executed coloured 

 drawing of a variety of V. urtic(B that he captured at Storridge, near 

 Malvern, in Worcestershire, on September 26th, 1901. It is a modi- 

 fication of the aberration of this species figured in the ' Entomologist,' 

 vol. xxxiii. pi, iii. fig. 1, but differs from that specimen in having the 

 outer margin of all the wings normally angulated ; the outer marginal 

 area of the fore wings is more variegated, and there are some rather 

 large blue submarginal spots on the hind wings. There is a blue spot 

 between second and third median nervules of fore wing, placed farther 

 from the margin than the normal blue spots in typical V. urticce. 



Autumnal Pupation of Cerigo cytherea. — I have a number of 

 larvae of C. cytherea which I am endeavouring to get through the 

 winter ; they are all about an inch in length, excepting two, which fed 

 up rapidly to a large size and have subsequently pupated. It would 

 be interesting to know if it is the rule for this species to pupate in the 

 late autumn, as I believe they are commonly known as hybernators.— 

 A. J. Lawrance ; Bromley Common, Kent. 



Third Brood of Phragmatobia fuliginosa. — On May 5th last I 

 had a female P. fuliginosa sent me by a friend, and on the 8th she laid 

 between thirty and forty whitish eggs. These began to hatch on 

 May 23rd, a dark speck having appeared two days before in each egg, 

 which gradually spread over the whole, making it appear of a dark 

 grey colour. All of them hatched out by next day. The caterpillars 

 were then of a dark greyish colour, most difficult to distinguish from 

 their food-plant. They fed well on dock, eating the lower membrane, 

 and lying on the under side of the leaf along the veins. From some 

 cause, possibly being too dry at their first moult, their number was on 

 the 29tli reduced to six ; they were then covered with light reddish 

 hairs, but this tint on June 1st became much darker, so that there 

 was no further difficulty in seeing them. They grew fast, and five 

 ultimately spun up about the end of June ; unfortunately I omitted to 

 make a note of the exact days. They were, however, about eighteen 

 days in the pupa state, and the first moths emerged on July 18th. 

 They proved to be a pair, and again I had a batch of between forty 

 and fifty fertile eggs. The larvae began to emerge on July 29th, and 



