38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ing to ascertain the cause of the excessive escape of gas in the house. 

 So far as I am aware this is the first occasion on whicli the larvae of 

 this beetle have been recorded as destructive to lead in any form. — 

 Feank M. Littler ; Launceston, Tasmania, November 25th, 1908. 



Meconema vaeium. — With regard to the remarks of Messrs. 

 Swinton and Lucas on the figure in the ' Entomologist ' for 1880, 

 p. 252, I think there is no doubt whatever that it is wrongly named. 

 For many years past I have been in the habit, during the late winter 

 months, of gathering a large number of oak-galls (A. terminaUs, with 

 a few C. kollari) for the purpose of breeding any small moths that 

 had passed the winter therein as larvae or pupae. Amongst a great 

 number of insects of various orders I have always bred some M. 

 varium, a clear, unspotted, green little creature. When I first bred 

 them I was much puzzled to find that they were quite spotless, when, 

 according to the figure {loc. cit.), they should have been spotted! 

 Leptopliyes punctatissima is spotted from babyhood. That Mr. Bignell 

 bred the species figured I have, of course, no doubt whatever, and, as 

 Mr. Lucas tells us that it is generally found on low growth, those 

 Mr. Bignell bred perhaps emerged from fallen galls. I shall have a 

 day's gall-hunting shortly, and will pick up all the fallen ones I can 

 find, and may perhaps breed L. lyunctatissima therefrom, if it occurs 

 in this neighbourhood. With regard to the Lepidoptera bred, I have 

 not been very successful. The following list comprises the lot : — 

 Cryptohlahes bistriga (a single specimen), Hemimene fimhriana 

 (scarce, about six or seven only), Pavimene argyrana (a few), P. galli- 

 colana (a large number on two occasions, but very few since), P. 

 splendichdana (a few each spring), Garpocapsa Juliana (two only), 

 Gelechia luculella (about half a dozen), (Ecoj^hora sulpliurella (not 

 uncommonly), Bucculatrix ulmella (three or four), Lithocolletis sp. ? 

 (a single specimen many years ago), Nepticula subhimaculella (three 

 only). — A. Thuenall ; Thornton Heath, January 6th, 1909. 



Cheimatobia beumata. — This troublesome pest has been gradu- 

 ally increasing in numbers during the past few years. Considerable 

 damage was done by the larvae to fruit trees in some districts in 1907 

 and 1908, and I fear 1909 may prove a record in this respect. x\s with 

 H. defoliaria, the emergence was delayed by the mild weather. They 

 began to appear at the beginning of November, increased slowly at 

 first, then very rapidly, reaching their greatest numbers at the end of 

 November and first fortnight of December. During that period the 

 woods after dark presented an extraordinary spectacle. The moths 

 were in countless numbers, and many thousands of pairs could be 

 seen every night. I tried to form some idea of the number of hrumata 

 per acre during early December ; it certainly was not less than fifty 

 thousand, and may well have been double that number. I "grease- 

 banded" most of my standard fruit trees; on each of three large 

 apple trees I counted over a thousand females, notwithstanding that 

 many had been brushed ofi' when renewing the grease. In many 

 cases the number of hrumata caught in the grease-band was so great 

 that they formed a bridge for others to walk over. They have nearly 

 all disappeared, but a few pairs may still be found every evening. (In 



