76 THE entomologist's record. 



46mm. ; of antennae, 55mm. ; expanse of elytra, 86mm. — W. J. 

 Lucas, B.A., F.E.S., 1, Minerva-road, Kingston-on-Thames. Feb- 

 ruary 11th, 1899. [The occiirrenco of this exotic at Kew is very interest- 

 ing, and is a notable addition to our foreign visitors that occur there. 

 The specimen does not correspond exactly with Stal's description of 

 C. brecirostrifi, but differs only in some minor details of colour. — M.B.] 



Apterygida albipennis, Meg., in Norfolk. — With reference to my 

 note on Apteri/fiida alhipennis, Meg. (ante p. 50), Mr. James Edwards 

 has kindly written and sent for my inspection an undoubted pair of 

 this rare species, taken by him near Norwich some ten years ago. 

 This is a most interesting record, and Norwich is, I believe, the most 

 northerly point at which it has been captured. — M. Burr, F.Z.S., 

 F.E.S., New College, Oxford. 



The migration of locusts. — I am not quite satisfied that all the 

 records of locusts in England are true cases of migration ; many 

 undoubtedly are brought to our coasts on ships. In 1893, when 

 Svhistorena pereciriyia ^v{nxm.Q(}i in Algeria, many flew on board home- 

 ward-bound vessels, and I was informed by Mr. Royal that from one 

 that entered Nelson Dry Dock, Rotherhithe, for repairs, considerable 

 numbers of dead specimens were swept. During the passage up- 

 channel many might have been strong enough to reach the land, and 

 so have furnished records for our southern counties. — Harry Moore, 

 F.E.8., 12, Lower-road, Rotherhithe. February 20th, 1899. [I have 

 received from Covent Garden examples of Acrid imn aeijiiptium, un- 

 doubtedly imported in vegetables from Southern Europe. — M.B.] 



.SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 



Colour-change in the adult larva of Scoliopteryx libatrix 

 JUST PREVIOUS to PUPATION. — Dr. Chapman has discussed {ante, vol. x., 

 pp. 116-118) the blackening of the exposed extremity of the larva of 

 8. Uhatrix before pupation. He does not mention the, to me, obvious 

 fimction of this unusual pigmentation. 6'. libatrix has a slender, light- 

 green larva, admirably adapted to escape observation while stretched 

 out on its food-plant. It spins a peculiar cocoon, the extremity of 

 which is widely open, thus exposing plainly to view the end of the larva. 

 The blackening ensues at once on the exposed portion, and thus 

 renders the larva inconspicuous during the period before pupation. 

 Many other larvae assume various changes in coloration during the 

 period of leaving the food-plant. Eudeilinea hermidata, normally green, 

 becomes bright red : Heterogenea shurtleffii loses all its pigment and 

 becomes transparent ; Folygrammate herbraicum , normally green, assumes 

 a marked and complicated pattern of lines and spots. Scoliopteryx 

 libatrix differs in the time of appearance of the coloration, the purpose 

 of which seems the same, namely, to render the larva inconspicuous in 

 its usual environment at the critical period preceding pupation. — 

 Harrison G. Dyar, Ph.D., National Museum, Washington, D.C. 



The Editor has handed to me Dr. Dyar's note on Scoliopteryx 

 libatrix, with a request for my remarks thereon. Some lexicographers 

 are said to have proposed to define a crab as "a fish that swims back- 

 wards," and this definition was highly approved by an eminent 

 naturalist, for three reasons — that a crab is not a fish, that it does not 



