NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 255 



from Erica cinerea in May, feeding them on cut heather in ordinary 

 breeding-cages, kept in a summer house in the garden, sprinkling the 

 food-plant with water every evening. — F. Pennington, Jun. ; Reform 

 Club, Pall Mall, S.W., October 1st, 1907. 



Chelidoptera (Platycleis) roeselii, &c, at Herne Bay. — During 

 a visit to Herne Bay last month I noticed a number of grasshoppers 

 on a sunny grassy hillside in the neighbourhood. I caught a few 

 specimens, and found one of them to be a female of Stenobothrus 

 elegans. Not being prepared for entomological work, I could do 

 nothing more at that time. Two days later (September 13th), how- 

 ever, I returned to the same district better equipped. I then took 

 8. elegans sparingly and S. parallelus plentifully, but the event of real 

 interest was the capture of a female of the rare grasshopper, Chelido- 

 ptera {Platycleis) roeselii, Hagenb., a species which had been previously 

 recorded from Herne Bay, but seemingly from only one other un- 

 doubted British locality. Notwithstanding a prolonged search, no 

 further specimens were met with, and I had no later opportunity of 

 renewing the search. — Herbert Campion ; 33, Maude Terrace, "Wal- 

 thamstow, October 14th, 1907. 



Note on Oporobia (Larentia) autumnata. — It is a long time since 

 I have had the pleasure of taking the above insect. It used to occur 

 freely in birch woods in North Durham. As I knew that it occurred 

 in this (Cleveland) district on alder, I was able to beat some larvas in 

 June from that tree. I thought I had seen the last of the insect for 

 the season, but I was mistaken. In early July I went as usual to beat 

 for larvae of P. piniperda from Pinus sylvestris, and amongst the con- 

 tents of the tray were some peculiar rusty larvae. The rust was to a 

 slight extent varied with green. I at once suspected that the larvae 

 were those of an Oporobia, but at the same time they more vividly 

 brought to my mind the larvae of E. fasciaria, so little did they 

 resemble ordinary Oporobia larvae, and so great was the amount of 

 red. The red was not in any manner like the purple which very 

 often appears in the larvaa of both 0. dilutata and 0. autumnata. It 

 evidently owed its origin to the same cause as the red of E. fasciaria 

 larvae, i. e. an attempt to imitate the red terminal bud of the pine 

 shoots. Passing from pines to larches, I beat similar larvae from the 

 larch. As at that time I was unwell, I was unable to describe the 

 larva as minutely as I wished. Although, as stated, I suspected at 

 the time that the larvae were 0. dilutata, so curious was their colora- 

 tion I determined, in spite of illness, to rear them. I did so, and was 

 rewarded by breeding in the last week of September some undoubted 

 specimens of 0. autumnata. When these emerged I went for wild 

 specimens, and was successful. In one case, about 3 p.m., I observed 

 one specimen, with wings unexpanded, crawl out of the debris about 

 ten inches from a larch-trunk, climb a grass-stalk, and there rest 

 until its wings were dry. It proved a very dark specimen, but still 

 0. autumnata. As all the specimens had the shining appearance 

 supposed to have been acquired in 0. autumnata from resting on 

 birches, this supposition must be fallacious. The nearest birches are 

 about a mile away, and there, owing to the swampy nature of the 

 ground, no specimens of Oporobia occur — at least, I have never beaten 



