NOTES ON THE HABITS OF INSECTS. 441 



To return to entomology : — In the marshes a small black 

 Leiodes is found on the ears of Triticum repetis, wherever 

 it is attacked by a disease similar to what in wheat is termed 

 the smut. I have never had an opportunity of making out 

 its habits and history fully, therefore I can only conjecture, 

 that, like its near neighbour in systematic catalogues, Phala- 

 crus, it feeds on the small fungilli which cause that disease. 

 Under the weeds by the sides of the ditches, especially under 

 the spreading branches of Atriplex partulaccoides, innume- 

 rable Coleoptera shelter themselves ; amongst which are 

 Ophojius pubescens and Pogonus chalceus in profusion ; 

 Ophonus obsciirus, &c. ; Amara atra, eurynota, &c. ; HaV' 

 pains suhccendeus, dentatus, confims, &c. ; Curtonotns 

 convexiusculus, Broscus cephaloles, Lopha nigra, &c. ; Sim- 

 plocaria semi-striata, Scijmnus, several species, amongst 

 which I have two apparently nondescripts. 



On the flowers, by the sides of the sea-walls, may be found 

 Pachyta livida; and an EristaUs, of which I know not the 

 trivial name, and which I do not remember to have seen in 

 any London cabinet I have visited. 



Setina irroreUa is very common at a place called Stone 

 Point, about four miles from the village. I have also found it 

 at Mercey Island, and believe it to be common along all this 

 part of the coast ; but Stone Point is its head quarters. I have 

 taken thirty or forty specimens, as fast as I could pin them ; 

 and my friend, J. Grubb, informs me, that about five years 

 back he saw, literally, hundreds lying dead on the ground, or 

 impaled on the blades of grass, and Psamma mariiima ; how 

 they came into the latter situation, I cannot imagine; but 

 there they were, by the dozen. They fly very early, from 

 three to six in the morning, but may be found sitting on the 

 blades of grass. The males appear a few days earlier than the 

 females. 



Lasiocampa casirensis, and Agrotis cespUis, have also 

 been found here ; the former, in the larva state, on Artemisia 

 maritima. 



I was much surprised to find, in Stephens's valuable work, 

 so erroneous a description of the larva of Nonagria lyphce^ 

 as the following: "Caterpillar green, spotted with black, 

 with a palish lateral line." I had seen, perhaps, a hundred 

 larvae, and never one with the least shade of green. To be 



NO. V. VOL. I. S L 



