NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 29 



Two events of imporfcance to our knowledge of the British 

 fauna will, we trust, take place ere long. These are the com- 

 pletion of his very excellent account of the Sawilies by the Eev. 

 F. D. Morice, and the publication by our highest authority upon 

 Heteroptera, E. A. Butler, B.A., B.Sc, of his close investigations 

 into the life-histories and metamorphoses of these most economi- 

 cally injurious insects, of which we are really very ignorant, con- 

 sidering their ubiquity. Douglas and Scott told us little of their 

 earlier stages, because little was known in 1865 ; and Saunders 

 in 1892 was deplorably tied down by his publishers. 



The extent of sleeping-sickness is yet unknown. Bruce, 

 Hamerton, and Bateman have some interesting observations in 

 the Proc, Eoyal Soc, and find that the water-buck, bush-buck, 

 and reed-buck can easily be infected with the human strain of 

 this disease, Trypanosoma gambiensis, by the bite of the fateful 

 Glossina 'palpalis. Subsequent investigation, however, failed to 

 reveal a trace of the parasites in the antelopes' blood, yet, even 

 more remarkably, the infected animals can transmit the parasite 

 to clean flies, even as long as eighty-one days after the latest 

 attack upon the host by an infected fly. The previously cle*an 

 fly is, too, capable of passing the virus on to other hosts, so that 

 these bucks, living in districts inhabited by Glossina, become 

 potential reservoirs of sleeping-sickness. We anticipate that 

 Mr. Newstead, who is now upon the spot, will find a large 

 proportion of indigenous animals to carry the disease. 



CM. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Sphinx convolvuli reared from the Egg. — -In the note sent 

 for publication, on October 24th, I mentioned that I had reared S. con- 

 volvuli from ova to pupa (Entom. xliv. p. 407). I have now to record 

 emergence of the moths. The pupae were kept in a temperature of 

 75°, and on November 7th one imago appeared, another emerged on 

 the 8th, followed by two imagines on the 19th. — G. Nobbs ; North 

 Lodge, E. Gowes, Isle of Wight. 



Gucullia umbratica reared in September. — From ova ob- 

 tained from a wild female of Gucidlia umhratica in June of this year 

 a number of the larvae fed up and pupated in August, and it may be 

 interesting to record that two specimens emerged during September. 

 The other pupae are going over as is usual. — T. Ashton Lopthouse ; 

 Linthorp, Middlesbrough, December, 1911. 



Gyaniris argiolus at Reading. — This species was seen in the 

 garden on May 7th last, and a recently emerged specimen was found 

 on a leaf of holly. — H. L. Dolton ; 21, Brunswick Street, Reading. 



Endromis versicolor in October. — On October 17th, 1911, I 

 found in my breeding cage a female versicolor which had pupated 



