212 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



in leaves of Ribes nigrum in my garden ; these they curl, and the 

 habitation so formed also gives protection to Syrphid larvae, which 

 work great havoc among these Aphids. Three of the latter pupated 

 on the 8th, and became perfect Syrphiis ribesii, Linn., towards 

 the end of the month.* R. nyjjiphcece, Linn., was abundant on 

 the stalks of Alisma plantago in July, and also on Nymphcea alba 

 in August in the moat which surrounds my house, both this and 

 last year, but among thousands of the apterous forms I could find 

 but a single winged specimen ; I omitted to breed the parasitic 

 Cynipid (not Braconid, cf. Buckton, ii. 153), Allotria erythro- 

 cephala, said to so extensively and beneficially prey upon it. A 

 very few winged females and pupseonly of jR. ligustri, Kalt., were 

 taken on August 2nd, 1907, on the under side of leaves, just 

 below the flowers, of Lignstrum vulgare. Exclusively winged 

 forms of Siphocoryne pastinacea, Linn., have been found on the 

 flower-stalks of wild Daucus carota, both here and in the adjacent 

 parish of Bedfield, in early August ; also on broad beans in my 

 garden in early June. S. xylostei, Schr., is a curse on Lonicera 

 periclyvienum over the house-windows, though, curiously enough, 

 honeysuckle in the garden and orchard a hundred yards away 

 appears exempt ; in such numbers are they that in 1906 the 

 flowers were all distorted and aborted. S. caprea, Fabr., occurs 

 commonly at the apex of the shoots and sparingly in the centre 

 of the under side of young leaves of Salix alba, like S. xylostei, 

 throughout the summer. The only S.foeniculi I have seen are 

 three examples, one of which was " stung," on fennel at Dun- 

 wich, by the roadside, in the middle of last September. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES ON SOME ANDALUSIAN BUTTEKFLIES. 

 By W. G. Sheldon, F.E.S. 



That most delightful experience, a spring holiday on the 

 Mediterranean, has become an annual necessity to those of us 

 whose pursuits are entomological or otherwise, and who have 

 once tasted its joys. 



We all, of course, first make for the Riviera, and revel in the 

 sunshine and in the clouds of butterflies there to be found from 



-''■ William Kirby wrote Letter IX. of the ' Introduction to Entomology,' 

 and it must be Barbam Parsonage, Suffolk, to which he refers when he says 

 (7th ed. p. 152): — "It was but last week that I observed the top of every 

 young shoot of the currant-trees in my garden curled up by myriads of these 

 insects. On examining them this day, not an individual remained, but 

 beneath each leaf are three or four full-fed larvae of aphidivorous flies, sur- 

 rounded with heaps of the skins of the slain, the trophies of their successful 

 warfare." Evolution seems slow in these matters. Perhaps their government 

 is not "progressive " ! 



