NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 267 



syringaria which he had under observation hung themselves from the 

 food-plant or roof of the breeding-cage by a thread, and that next 

 day a larva so suspended was found to have a pupa-case of an 

 ichneumon suspended from it. The letter reads as if this occurred 

 with all the thirty larvae mentioned by the writer. Although I have 

 known a similar instance myself, it must not be taken that such is 

 usually the case. In the ordinary way the parasitic larva emerges 

 from the host when the latter is resting on a branch or leaf of the 

 food-plant, attaching itself to the pabulum before quite severing 

 connection with the host. When confined in a breeding-cage, the 

 slightest jar causes the larvae of H. syringaria to drop, as described 

 by Dr. Buckle, and it is easy to see that when weakened by the 

 presence of a parasite they may be unable to climb back, and that 

 consequently the parasitic larva is obliged to emerge when the host 

 is in this unusual position. In a state of nature such a thing must 

 be of rare occurrence. To quote from the letter : " The fly emerged 

 by cutting off a circular cap from the lower end of the pupa-case, or, 

 in a few cases, by eating a rather irregular hole through the side of 

 the case." Now, with M. niger, as with all other Meteoridae with 

 which I am acquainted, the fly invariably removes a circular cap, the 

 irregular holes that Dr. Buckle describes were no doubt made by 

 hyperparasites, probably a species of Hemiteles or Mesochorus. 

 Again, to quote : " The darkest specimens, the males, all came out 

 first ; and then the rather softer-bodied females, which had a 

 yellowish patch in the center of the dorsal surface of the abdomen." 

 In M. niger the female is quite as dark as her mate, not one of the 

 hundred or so specimens I have examined showing any sign of such a 

 yellowish patch as mentioned. In some species of Mesochorus, 

 however, which I have bred hyperparasitically through Meteoridae, 

 such markings are usual, so that I think if Dr. Buckle will re-examine 

 his specimens, he will find that he has confused the parasite with the 

 hyperparasite. Mesochorus is, of course, widely removed from 

 Meteorus, though in size the parasite and hyperparasite agree. In 

 the study of the Parasitica, the snares and pitfalls set for the expe- 

 rienced student are very numerous ; for the novice or unwary 

 observer their name is legion. — G. T. Lyle ; Brockenhurst, August 

 8th, 1913. 



Araschnia levana at Cardiff. — Your correspondent Mr. T. Butt 

 Ekins would be well advised to compare the insect which he 

 assumes to be A. levana with the Continental spring form of this 

 butterfly. Possibly, misled by the description in the text-book 

 quoted, he has mistaken Hamearis (Nemeobius) lucina for levana, 

 which, by the way, is not a " fritillary " at all. It has, I believe, 

 never been reported British, even in the imaginative days of the 

 " Kentish Cabinet "; but it is difficult to understand why this species, 

 which is not uncommon on the opposite side of the Channel, in the 

 north-east departments of France, should not be indigenous or have 

 established itself in our southern woods. It does not occur in the 

 north-west of France, or Brittany, for example ; but in the Nord is 

 reported from the Forest of Mormal (Le Eoi) ; and my correspondent 

 M. Postel, of Foncquevillers, Pas-de-Calais, informs me that it is 



