﻿138 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



variation of several species, and prominent among them being C. spectabilis. 

 In the Nilumbik Valley, eighteen miles north-east of Melbourne, the species 

 is common, and inhabits the low vegetation ; I obtained all my specimens 

 on the dark green boughs of tbe young black wattles (Acacia decurrens). 

 As evening approaches the beetles ascend the stems of the plants, and 

 alternately move slowly and cautiously along the boughs, and resting 

 motionless for some time, when in the latter position the slightest artificial 

 movement of the bough caused the insect to drop suddenly into the long 

 grass beneath. It is, however, more the variation of the species than its 

 habits that I desire to record. I regret that I have not the original 

 description in my possession, but the species is undoubtedly subject to 

 great variation, my specimens ranging from a pale green ground to dark 

 brown or black ; some are richly and regularly dotted with gold on a green 

 ground, while others are marked with irregular black patches or dull green 

 and bluish grounds. I have one bright burnished specimen and one black, 

 and other intermediate forms ; the species also varies greatly in size in 

 both sexes. When searching for the insects I observed that the dark forms 

 were more difficult to detect on the boughs than the gold-dotted or pale 

 green varieties. I may also mention that last spring and summer were 

 the driest and hottest on record in Victoria, but how such affected insect- 

 life as compared to previous seasons I cannot say. Mr. Cockerell's appeal 

 to entomologists to " take careful notes of all varieties they meet with from 

 time to time, and especially the conditions under which they exist," is 

 certainly to the point, and all — beginners particularly — would do well to 

 act on the suggestion. The chemistry of their food-plants in each season 

 will probably have to be worked out, as having special bearing in all stages 

 on the variation both of the larva and imago. — W. W. Smith ; East Belt, 

 Ashburton, New Zealand, Nov. 25, 1889. 



Notes on the Season 1889. — On Good Friday I journeyed to Win- 

 dermere to look for the larvae of Laverna lacteella. Few collectors can see 

 the difference between this species and L. paludicolella, Doubl. The food- 

 plant, Epilobium Mrsutum, was just peeping above ground, and I collected 

 all I could find, hoping that either ova or larva? might be thereon ; but 

 when I examined it at home I could only see two small larvae ; these were 

 obscure whitish in colour, with black heads, and one of them produced a 

 moth in June. In trying to force imagines a month or so earlier from the 

 mines and cocoons I had gathered the previous autumn, I was not eminently 

 successful, as from about 400 larvae of Nepticula gel and N. splendissimella 

 I only bred about a dozen specimens. As, in subsequently searching for 

 them, I could find very few empty cocoons, I concluded that owing to the 

 cold weather the larvae had not vitality enough to undergo the change. A 

 similar unsatisfactory result befel a canister-full of Nepticulidae and Litho- 

 colletis caledoniella from Renfrew. Nepticula aucuparice, N. tityrella, and 

 N. continuella all did badly. The only species I bred in any number was 

 N. tilicB and about twenty-five specimens of N. desperatella. Last year I 

 could not find any larvae of N. minusculella, but six imagines were bred in 

 1889 from pupae obtained in 1887. Lithocolletis fared badly; a very few 

 L. kleemannella and L. stettinensis ; while of L. bistentella I only got one 

 specimen. Among the larger moths I may mention one fine Cabera 

 rotundaria. During the season I visited Windermere on several occasions, 

 but scarcely saw a Geometra, and Tortrices and Tinese were very poorly 



