NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 17 



I happened to be standing near an old wall inhabited by numbers of 

 the Hymenoptei'a, Osmia rufa and 0. coBrulescens, and by the Lepido- 

 ptera, Bryophila vmiralis and B. perla, when I noticed an ichneumon 

 fly alight on the wall and begin examining it. In a minute or two 

 another of the species also settled, and the first flew away. The 

 second one, after running about with antennae held down and vibrat- 

 ing, stopped near a cocoon of B. muralis. It bent its antennae on to 

 the cocoon, appearing to press them down with some force, and at 

 the same time vibrating them much more violently than before. 

 After doing this for a short time it walked away, but quickly returned 

 and repeated the performance from the other side. Next, it opened 

 a small hole in the cocoon with its jaws, and pushed its head in. 

 Apparently finding nothing, it withdrew and flew to another part of 

 the w^all. I then opened the cocoon, and found that it was of the 

 usual double type, namely, a thin layer of particles of earth fastened 

 together with silk, making a crack between two stones flush with the 

 rest of the wall, and about an eighth of an inch deeper and quite 

 separate, the true cocoon similarly constructed, which in this case 

 contained a living pupa of B. muralis. The ichneumon soon found 

 another cocoon of muralis, and did exactly as before, except that it 

 pushed its head and thorax completely inside. This cocoon was an 

 empty one. It then flew off, and fearing to lose it, I captured it. 

 Mr. Claude Morley has identified it as a female of Ccelichneumon con- 

 sirnilis (Wesm.), and in his ' Ichneumonologia Britannica,' vol. i., 

 p. 31, states that Mr. Stanley Kemp has bred several of both sexes 

 together from chrysalids of Bryophila muralis (Forst.) [= glandifera, 

 Hb.] at Hythe, in Kent, during September, 1901. He tells me it 

 had not been bred before, and has only been recorded in Britain from 

 Kent, Norfolk, Herts, and Devon, and says he has never heard of the 

 parasite tearing open a lepidopterous cocoon, and that such a thing 

 is unrecorded in ichneumonological annals. — E. A. Cockayne ; 16, 

 Cambridge Square, W. 



The Barrett Collection. — The extensive collection of "Micro- 

 Lepidoptera " amassed by the late Mr. C. G. Barrett was broken up 

 at Stevens's Auction Eooms on December 3rd last. From a rough 

 casting of the figures, we find that the Tortricina (nearly 10,000 

 specimens) realized about £30, and the Tineina (over 14,000 speci- 

 mens) something like £37. The collection was offered in 121 lots, 

 and in all but 10 of these there were over 100 examples. 47 of the lots 

 contained from 200 to 300 specimens ; and in 11 others there were 

 over 300, the number in one lot reaching 431. The total realized 

 gives an average of somewhere about 5/6 per 100. In some few cases 

 the bidding per lot fell under 2/- per 100, but in others it ranged 

 from 8/- up to 15/- per 100. Space will not permit of much detail, 

 but it maybe mentioned that 10 specimens of BrachytcEnia woodiana, 

 offered in sets of 5, realized 59/-. A lot of Sciaphila, comprising 

 all the British species, and numbering 352 specimens, made 32/6. 

 Lot 52, comprising 226 specimens of Eupacilia, including curvi- 

 strigana (14) and vianniana (5), sold for 37/6. Sixteen Argyrolepia 

 schreibersiana and twelve Lozopera hcatricella, with 133 other things, 

 brought in 28/-. For a lot comprising Banhesia conspiurcatella (two 



ENTOM. — JANUARY, 1908. B 



