Insects. 74 1 1 



same colour as the ground, are exceedingly difficult to detect; for unless the atoms 

 move, you may have several under your eye, and yet be unable to see one. Does not 

 this difficulty of detection lead to the inference that concealment from its enemies is 

 the end sought to be attained ? I think it does. The insect occurred on the banks of 

 the river Irthing, four or live miles west of Gilsland, in the early part of June. This 

 locality being so contiguous to our district will, I hope, be some excuse for crossing 

 its borders in search of the materials for this note. — Thomas John Bold, in ^ Trans- 

 actions of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club,' iv. 65. 



Economy of Apion violaceum. — In the early spring of this year I found at Long 

 Benton a large stem of the common dock which had been perforated in a great num- 

 ber of places by an insect. On splitting it open I found that the perforator had been 

 the larva of a small Coleopterous insect, the Apion violaceum of Linneus, which had 

 apparently fed upon the pith of the plant, burrowing in it for six or eight inches, 

 undergoing transformations within, then gnawing their way outwards, leaving the 

 circukr orifices which attracted my attention. I found several individuals that, after 

 undergoing their last change, bad been unable to escape,— perhaps killed by the drying 

 of the stem, which had been severed from the root. — Id. iv. &Q. 



Transformations of Cionus ScrophularicB. — About the 14lh of July, 1857, Mr. John 

 Thornhill brought me some stems of Strophularia aquatica, on the tops of which were 

 clustered great numbers of small gummy-looking capsule-shaped cocoons. These, teu 

 days after, produced an abundance of a very beautiful Coleopterous insect, the Cionus 

 Scrophulariae of Linneus. The whole of the foliage of the plant had been devoured 

 by the larvae, all of whom bad changed into pupa but one; this was rather shrivelled, 

 somewhat onisciform, and of a yellowish green colour. The cocoons were of the size 

 of small peas, with little protuberances on them, semitransparent, horn-coloured, or 

 rather of a greenish horn-colour, having quite the appearance of small gum capsules, 

 and were clustered on the tops of the plant like inverted bunches of grapes. — Id. 



Note on the Use of the Forceps of the Earwig. — Has any one noticed the common 

 earwig seize insects with its forceps ? I saw one clasp an active beetle, Quedius fuli- 

 ginosus, round the middle with them, raise it from the ground, and run off with it in 

 spite of its most energetic struggles. — Id. iv. 335. 



Note on Anisolahia maritima. — In the ' Transactions of the Tyneside Natunilists' 

 Field Club,' vol. iv. p. 56, I stated that this fine earwig was in a fair way of becoming 

 extinct amongst us. This opinion, I am glad to find, is erroneous. In August and 

 September of 1860 Mr. Perkins and myself found it tolerably abundant, and of all 

 sizes, in its old locality — to wit, the large ballast heap on the sea-shore, near South 

 Shields.— /</. 



Economy of Serropalpus humeralis. — As this insect, formerly a rarity in this country, 

 has lately been taken in considerable abundance, some slight account of its economy 

 cannot be otherwise than acceptable to the readers of the ' Zoologist.' I therefore 

 extract the following paragraph on the subject from the pen of M. E. Perris, published 

 in the ' Annals of the Entomological Society of France ' for the year 1857. " Under 

 the influence of the first showers at the end of August or beginning of September there 

 is developed on the old stumps of fir trees, as well as on such of their larger roots as 

 approach the surface of the soil, a large fungus of moderate thickness, of a yellowish 

 brown colour and spongy substance, sometimes sessile, sometimes supported by a stout 

 but short foot-stalk ; it is described by Brotero under the name of Polyporus maximus, 

 and properly belongs to the genus Dedalaea. It is to this fungus that the Hallomenus 



