840 THE entomologist's recobd. 



must mention that I paid two visits to Wicken Fen in August, the 

 first from 5th-7th and the second from 21st-24th, and it was diiring 

 the hxtter that the water-beetles were so much in evidence. — Horace 

 DoNisTHORPE, 58, Kensington Mansions, W. 



Rare Coleoptera in 1899. — Whilst looking through Mr. Bates' 

 fine collection of British coleoptera the other day, he pointed out to 

 me several very rare beetles he had received from the New Forest this 

 year, and which are well worthy of record. Of these the two best were 

 Tropideres srpicola, F., and Ernobiuii ahieth, F. The former of these 

 very scarce insects was once taken before by Mr. Plant, of Leicester, in 

 a decayed oak-bough from Buddon Wood, August 18th, 1856 {Knt. 

 Annitol, 1857, p. 84). Of the latter Canon Fowler writes {('ul. Brit. 

 Isles, vol. iv., p. 193): "I think that it is quite possible that we do 

 not possess the true species as British ; at all events it requires more 

 confirmation." Stephens records it from Scotland and Whales, and 

 there is a doubtful specimen in the Power collection. Other things 

 worthy of mention were VelleiKs dilatatiis, F., the hornet's nest beetle 

 (it will be remembered that Mr. Gorham took a pair in the Forest last 

 year) and a very fine specimen of A(/rilt(s sinuatHs, 01, This has been 

 quite a year for very rare beetles, and some that have not been taken for 

 many years have turned up. Mr. Walker tells me he has just taken the 

 beautiful ('allistiis liinatus, F., in his district. Mr. Day captured a 

 specimen of the very scarce Lcbia cni.r-ininor, L., Carlisle (Knt. Mo. 

 Ma//., XXXV., p. 145); Professor Beare has taken Hyjiera clontjata, Payk., 

 in Scotland, on which interesting insect there is a note in the current 

 number of the Record. I had the pleasure of turning up T)i/tmus 

 dimidiatas, Berg., at Wicken {ante, p. 839) and I find that an Af/athi- 

 dium, which I took near Lyndhurst on a powdery fungus on a beech 

 log last June, and had put aside for identification, is a J^ of the very 

 rare A. confiisuDi, Bris., {ebjpeatHm, Sharp). Mr. E. A. Waterhouse 

 and Mr. Newbury have confirmed this determination. — Ibid. 



;i^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Description of Hepialid larva. — Gorina despecta, " Walk." — 

 Locality : Palmerston North, New Zealand. Ova, laid March 5th, 

 1899, hatched April 3rd, 1899. Larva, examined- July 12th, 1899. 

 Lemjth : Eleven-sixteenths of an inch. Colour: Head medium ma- 

 hogany, not glassy ; dorsal plates of thoracic segments brown, that of 

 prothorax paler at sides and narrowly darker at anterior edge ; segments 

 (abdominal) are dark greenish really due to the contents of the alimentary 

 canal showing through semitransparent whitish skin ; legs pale brown and 

 glassy ; prolegs white ; tubercles black ; hairs brownish-black ; spiracles 

 brownish-black. The larval skin maybe described as prickly ; the hairs of 

 tubercles are like bristles slightly curved and thorny with minute blunt 

 thorns, not unlike those on a rosebush twig. Shape : Cylindrical, rather 

 flat ventrally. Dorsal view : Head evenly rounded on all sides except 

 posterior ; prothorax is shorter than the other segments all of which 

 appear to be same size, except the 9th abdominal and the anal seg- 

 ments which taper somewhat. Anterior trapezoidals close together ; 

 posterior trapezoidals remote on all except the 8th abdominal segment, 



* Examined with a watchmaker's eyepiece. 



