294 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



" in confinement the moth sometimes emerges in the autumn." 

 L. W. Newman, in the useful work he has just published, gives 

 advena as a larva in August and September, and as a pupa from 

 October to May. As this moth comes fairly freely to sugar in my 

 own garden, I have tried breeding it several times. When about 

 two-thirds grown I have always found the larvae show a strong desire 

 to hibernate, and on one occasion I placed a number of larvae in the 

 open, caged on turf in which dandelion, plantain, &c, were growing. 

 They disappeared during the winter, but they showed themselves 

 again about March, seemed quite lively and vigorous, and nibbled 

 grass and the young dandelion shoots ; but though I tried them 

 with a variety of other food, I apparently did not strike the right one 

 for their sprirg consumption, and they all died off one by one. This 

 goes to prove tnat Meyrick is right, and that advena does the same 

 as its near relatives, tincta and nebulosa, and hibernates as a larva 

 under natural conditions. It would be interesting to have the experi- 

 ences of other observers. While on the subject of the Aplectas, I 

 may perhaps record a rather curious point in connection with tincta. 

 Once I happened to be near a favourite haunt of the species on a 

 very warm evening very early in the year, and, to see if tincta larvae 

 moved so early, I examined the birch bushes, where I found plenty 

 of the larvae in their last skins but one. I took some, but though 

 they ate the food I gave them and changed their last skins, they did 

 no good at all, and were easily passed by some larvae I took some 

 three or four weeks later at the same spot, which fed up and pupated 

 as easily as possible, as I have found they always do when taken in 

 their last skins. The question is, What was the special food or con- 

 dition the larvae required in their last instar but one ? Also, was it 

 the same want that killed the advena larvae I hybernated? — C. Rippon ; 

 Springfield House, Abingdon-on-Thames. 



SOCIETIES. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society. — June 26th.- -Mr. A. E. Tonge, President, in the chair. — 

 Mr. Main exhibited pupa and living larva of Pamassius apollo and 

 the larva of the tiger-beetle, Gicindela sylvatica, from near Meiringen, 

 Switzerland. — Mr. Coxhead, galls on leaves of beech, and coloured 

 drawings of the same. They were of the Cecidomyid, Mikiola fagi. 

 — Mr. A. E. Gibbs, a series of Euchloc cardamines, from near Messina, 

 Sicily, and pointed out that they were small compared with average 

 British specimens, and were known as turritis, in which the apical 

 blotch is not extended beyond the discal spot. Mr. Main said 

 that Phyllotoma aceris, the jumping sawfly, was now common in 

 many places in the larval state. — Messrs. Sich, Adkin, Edwards, 

 Barrett, and Dr. Chapman made remarks on the season. 



July 10th. — Mr. A. E. Tonge, President, in the chair. — Mr. 

 Main, a species of tick from a tortoise of Moroccan origin ; the males 

 were small and blackish in colour, while the female was many times 

 larger, and of a delicate pale slate-colour ; and cases of the Psychid, 



