NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 225 



little about moths, which accounts for the Spurge Hawk remaining 

 unnoticed so long. — A. S. Buckhuest ; 9, Souldern Eoad, West 

 Kensington, July 19th, 1914. 



Note on Orgyia antiqua. — I had larvae of Orgyia antiqua this 

 year in a breeding-cage indoors, feeding them on plum leaves. To 

 my surprise, after the females resulting from the normal brood had 

 laid eggs, these latter began to hatch out about July 11th. I can 

 find no reference to this fact in the text-books. I should be much 

 interested to know whether a second brood has occui-red many 

 times before. — A. H. Lees ; University of Bristol, July 16th, 1914. 



[Larvae of Orgyia antiqua have been observed in August and 

 September, and occasionally imagines have been seen in October. — 

 E. S.] 



Hymenoptera submitted for Determination. — We have re- 

 ceived from Mr. F. Dennis, of East Liss, in Hants, a handsome 

 female of the largest British Ichneumon fly {Rhyssa persuasoria, 

 Linn.), captured upon a window there ; a ligneous gall, also found 

 there on oak, is too broken and shrivelled to determine. Mr. 

 Geoffrey Todd, of Barnet, has sent us a bundle of Braconid cocoons 

 from which he has bred Apantcles ruficrus, Hal. ; these were first 

 observed in larvae of Arenostola {Leiicania) brevilinea, Fenn., on 

 June 24th, and emerged on July 10th. Goureau has given an 

 interesting account of the earlier stages of this parasite at Soc. Ent. 

 France, 2^ s6rie, tom. iii. p. 355 ; it has already been bred from 

 Leiicania littoralis, Curt., and L. pallens, L. Neither Mr. Todd nor 

 we can recall previous records of hymenopterous parasites upon this 

 Noctuid moth. — Claude Morley; July 22nd, 1914. 



Abundance of Plutella maculipennis (cruciferaeum). — I 

 can testify from personal experience as to the abundance of this 

 species. During Easter it was beginning to emerge on the heaths 

 about Sidmouth (South Devon), and was swarming in this locality by 

 April 20th. At Whitsuntide in the neighbourhood of Chelmsford it 

 was abundant on the wing, in the late afternoon, over every roadside 

 patch of waste vegetation. — E. Meldola ; 6, Brunswick Square, 

 W.C, July 3rd, 1914. 



Plutella maculipennis (cruciferarum) in North Cumber- 

 land. — This species is now very abundant in this district. I first 

 noticed the moth in June; now, scarcely a field of turnips has escaped. 

 Injury has been principally done amongst the swede turnips, and 

 many of the fields have assumed a grey appearance. The farmers in 

 the district say that such a plague has not been experienced for thirty 

 years. — George B. Eoutledge ; Tarn Lodge, Headsnool, Carlisle, 

 July 7th, 1914. 



Appearance of Euchloe cardamines. — May I add my experi- 

 ence of this species during the present season ? I first met with it 

 in a clearing in a wood in Kent on April 23rd, at a height of about 

 200 ft. ; it was quite common, and females predominated. Next I 

 found it, in an interval of sunshine, between a couple of thunder- 

 storms, at the Villa Adriana, near Eome, probably at about a similar 



ENTOM. — AUGUST, 1914. T 



