68 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



also ; it is, however, more probably an instance of the periodical 

 abundance of an insect without any clear reason, for early speci- 

 mens were immature, and it would seem therefore must have 

 been bred here. Has the succession of warm summers anything 

 to do with the increase in numbers ? Eev. A. East's most inter- 

 esting observations and experiments in connection with Mschna 

 cyanca have been recorded in this magazine, and it will therefore 

 only be necessary now to give the references to them (Entom. 

 xxxiii. pp. 88, 211, 257 ; vtde also xxxiii. p. 350, and xxxiv. p. 53). 

 Aischna isosceles still awaits a rediscoverer. 



Although the Channel Islands are not geographically in the 

 British Islands, it may be well to note that Dr. F. A. Walker 

 took Lestes harhara commonly in Alderney. 



At the canal between Byfleet and Weybridge a few imagines 

 of Platycnemis pennipes were found by Mr. H. Stocks and myself, 

 and I again bred the species from a New Forest nymph. Mr. 

 East also took the imago by the Thames near Bablockhythe. 

 Eri/thromma naias was bred by Mr. F. Enock from nymphs taken 

 at Loughton. 



In the New Forest last season I captured two extreme forms 

 of the female of Piirrhosoma tenellium — one with abdomen black- 

 bronze, the other with abdomen crimson like that of the male. 

 For purposes of reference and description, I will call the former 

 var. (sneatum, and the latter var. ruhratum. In ceneatum (PL I. 

 fig. 5) all the segments are black-bronze except narrow circlets 

 at the sutures, which are yellow interrupted with bronze ; the 

 ventral surface of the abdomen is yellow. Mr. A. H. Hamm 

 took several specimens of the same form in Devonshire, at 

 Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey. It is probably only a co- 

 incidence that the nymph-skin of a specimen bred of this variety 

 was perceptibly darker than the sidn of a nymph which produced 

 a normal female. Mr. J. C. Dale took this variety in Dorset 

 (De Selys, ' Revue,' p. 181). A year or two since I took in the 

 New Forest an intermediate form. In ruhratum (PI. I. fig. 4) 

 all the segments are crimson, but there are narrow black circlets 

 between segments 2-7 at least ; the dorsal surface of the thorax 

 is entirely black-bronze, the face also is as in the male. I have 

 so far met with only two or three specimens, all in the New Forest. 

 De Selys describes this variety ('Revue,' p. 181), and refers to 

 an intermediate form. Before leaving this species I might say 

 that the nymph closely resembles that of P. nymphula in minia- 

 ture. During an emergence observed on June 23rd the "rest" 

 which lasted eleven minutes was taken with the head and 

 thorax upright. 



Pyrrlwsoma nymphula has also a var. cBneahm (PI. I. fig. 3). 

 The dorsal surface of all the segments is practically black-bronze, 

 except the circlet, which is yellow, interrupted mid-dorsally with 

 black-bronze ; the sides are yellow, and so are the markings on 



