29'2 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



observation of which Dr. Sharp's note on the habits of an earwig 

 reminds me. I remember writing about it to Prof. Westwood, chiefly 

 as regards the joints added to the antennae with each moult in the 

 young earwigs, but I think I sent no notice to any magazine. I 

 found more than one earwig's nest in which the young and pale 

 earwigs were at home with their mother till quite half grown. But 

 the point I remember as most attracting my attention was the 

 presence in the nest of bits of grass ; the details I forget, but I felt 

 no doubt that these were brought in by the mother earwig, and were 

 food for the young, which were too small and soft to forage for 

 themselves, but whether they nibbled this grass, or whether the 

 mother further prepared it for them, I do not recollect ascertaining. 

 It curiously happens that last July 2nd, on the Eggishorn, I ob- 

 served an earwig, looking to me like auricularia but possibly some 

 other species (I enclose the specimen so that it may be identified)," 

 carrying a piece of grass, no doubt, I imagined, to take it to its nest 

 for its brood. The piece of grass was rather slender, and of a length 

 to project some 2 or 3 mm. in front and rather more behind the 

 insect as it carried it underneath and parallel with its length. I 

 watched it for some time, and came to the conclusion, owing to its 

 uncertain wanderings, that it had lost its way. It was on a foot- 

 path, and as it examined different hollows, it seemed probable that 

 the nest was in the path, but that the entrance had been damaged or 

 closed either by me or some other passer-by. This was shortly after 

 midday, an unusual time for an earwig to be at large, so that possibly 

 it had been wandering since early morning, though, if so, one would 

 hardly expect it to have stuck to the bit of grass all the time. Once 

 an impediment made it drop the grass and pick it up so that it was 

 transverse to the line of march, but as soon as it was clear it again 

 dropped it and picked it up, so as to replace it in its position longi- 

 tudinally beneath it, obviously the one in which it could be most 

 easily transported. There must surely be somewhere some record of 

 how the young earwigs are fed in the nest, but no reference is made 

 to the point in De Geer (as quoted by Kirby k Spence) or by Dr. 

 Sharp either in the note in the ' Entomologist ' or in the Cambridge 

 Natural History. My observations show that the mother provides 

 the food, but details are much to be desired. — T. A. Chapman; Betula, 

 Keigate, September 10th, 1910. 



Phibalapteryx lapidata Eeaeed on Clematis jackmanii. — 

 During the present month (September) I have had the pleasure of 

 rearing seven specimens (two males, five females) of P. laiyidata. 

 The larvae hatched (March 9th-30th) from ova deposited by a female 

 captured in the Glasgow district during the previous autumn. About 

 a score of the earlier hatched larvae were provided with leaves of a 

 rue {Thalictruvi ad i ant i folium), buttercup, and a coarse kind of grass; 

 but although they seemed to eat the rue they did not thrive, and 

 ultimately died. The later larvae were supplied with shoots of 

 Clematis jachmanii and Thalictrum, and they at once took to the 

 former, entirely neglecting the rue. On May 11th there were eight 

 alive, and these varied in size, the largest being about three-quarters 



■'• [Species uot yet determined ; name will be given in November. — Ed.] 



