254 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



(4) 3. Body testaceous red ... 2. chlorophthalmus, Nees. 

 (3) 4. Body nigrescent .... 3. discolor, Wesm. 



Z. testaceator. — Not uncommonly captured and bred, though 

 I have only once met with it, about Ipswich, in 1899. Several 

 males at Felden, in Herts (Piffard) ; South Leverton in Notts, 

 June, 1896 (Thornley) ; Eeigate in August, 1872 (W. Saunders) ; 

 bred at Caister, in Lincolnshire, by Mr. G. W. Mason, in 1905, 

 from Cosmia trapezina ; and from an unidentified larva from 

 Hailsham, in Sussex, in July, 1892, by Mr. G. T. Porritt. 



Z. chlorophthalmus.— I only possess one male, given me some 

 years ago by Eev. E. N. Bloomfield, who captured it at Guest- 

 ling, near Hastings, in 1889. 



Z. discolor. — Mr. J. E. Campbell-Taylor sent me a single 

 female of this species, which he had captured in the Cardiff 

 district in 1903. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



On Rearing P. podalirius.— Like Mr. P. T. Gilliat (antea, p. 211), I, 

 too, failed with larvae from ova collected at Hveres this spring. They 

 fed up well on myrobalan plum, but I did not like the look of some of 

 the chrysalids, and in the end all the specimens that emerged were 

 crippled. However, in my case I attributed failure to the fact that I 

 took my pupa? to Switzerland and back, and they underwent many 

 changes of climate and altitude before they emerged after I returned 

 home at the end of July.— W. H. St. Quintin ; Scampston Hall, 

 Rillington, York. 



Ova of Araschnia levana.— I caged two female A. lev ana captured 

 at the end of June last in Switzerland, and obtained ova from both. 

 As Mr. Sheldon observes in the last number of the ' Entomologist,' 

 the ova are laid in strings, generally, but not always, pendent from 

 the lower surface of the nettle-leaf. My insects laid batches at 

 intervals, from two to five "strings" in each batch. One insect laid 

 two batches, and the other three. The ova are of a pale green when 

 fresh, and simulate wonderfully the spikelets of the flowers and seeds 

 of the food-plant. It was curious to watch the young larva? hatching 

 They manage to leave the shell without breaking the connection 

 between the ova. When all the larva? have left a "string," the 

 transparent egg-shells still remain attached by their tops and 'bases, 

 and still pendent from the leaf. — W. H. St. Quintin. 



On Rearing the Larvae of Agrotis agathina. — Barrett, in his 

 'Lepidoptera,' says, in reference to A. agathina, that in confinement 

 it seems almost impossible to bring the larva to maturity, and that, so 

 far as he knows, it must be reared on growing heather in the open air. 

 He quotes Mr. Gregson's directions to the same effect, and several 

 contributors to Tutt's ' Hints ' seem to agree with him. My experience 

 is that it is quite easy to rear this insect from very young larva? swept 



