162 [J^iy- 



the characters given sufficiently distinguish the latter. Should it prove to have 

 effected a permanent settlement, we may surely hope that the variety will prove to 

 be accompanied by the better known European typical form. — Chas. Gr. Babbett, 

 39, Linden Grove, Nunhead, S.E. : June \1th, 1894. 



Food-plants of Papilio Machaon, L., in the Zihan, Algeria. — When spring is 

 advanced, the swallow-tail butterfly is common locally among the low hills that 

 fringe the plain in this part of the country. Larvae were first noticed on the 17th 

 of May, when almost every stage of growth was represented. Occasionally, on being 

 approached, the youngest larvae display uneasiness, and at once protrude the bifid 

 tentacle. Older larvae need persuasion with a twig or finger to provoke its extrusion ; 

 if teased with a grass awn they are apt to drop down off their plant precipitately. 

 Their principal food about Biskra is Deverra scoparia, Coss. and Dr. (I have not yefc 

 seen any on D. chlorantha, id., although they may just as well feed on it also). This 

 is an umbelliferous plant, allied to celery, that resembles at its best a tall clump of 

 slender rushes : but camels and goats very often reduce it to a woe-begone stump. 

 Its stem-leaves are nothing but rudimentary sheaths, and the others, short, with 

 filiform segments, do not make any particular show. The larvse eat the stems, and 

 sometimes three or four can be found on one plant ; it is rather an exception for a 

 plant to have none. Foeniculum vulgare, Grsertner, restricted seemingly to the Oued 

 Biskra in this neighbourhood, and there local, yielded a solitary larva, after a long 

 search. Another occasional food-plant of the species about here is Haplophyllum 

 tuberculatum, Forsk., of the Hutacece, a plant that can be found, by one's nose, in 

 dry water-channels here and there out on the wastes ; I have seen three larvae on 

 one small plant. — A. E. Eaton, Biskra, Algeria : June 6fk, 1894. 



Abundance of Vanessa cardui and Plusia gamma. — I do not know whether 

 your attention has been called from otlier quarters to the sudden appearance of 

 Vanessa cardui and Plusia gamma in considerable numbers, but as I know you take 

 a special interest in this matter, I will tell you what I saw this morning. I went 

 out for a short walk along our sea-wall in the Isle of Sheppey in the forenoon, and 

 noticed that every little clump of thistles in bloom had two or three Vanessa cardui 

 feeding at the flowers ; and in the hay fields a little way inland, Plusia gamma was 

 equally common, getting up out of the grass as one walked along the path. Both 

 these insects were in the same condition, worn and faded, but not apparently torn 

 or broken ; and I am inclined to believe that, as in 1879 (to which year the present 

 one, up to this date, bears an unfortunate meteorological resemblance), there has 

 been a considerable immigration of these species from abroad. Last summer Vanessa 

 cardui was quite a rarity in Kent ; indeed, I did not see more than about four 

 specimens altogether, and Plusia gamma was by no means as common as usual, so I 

 do not think that the insects seen to-day have hibernated on the spot. I may add 

 that I have seen neither species before this date, except one V. cardui at Chatham 

 on the 14th. — J. J. Walkee, Sheerness : June \1th, 1894. 



Mare Coleoptera in 1893. — Megapenthes sanguinicoUis, at Bexley ; Bruchus 

 affinis, Darenth Wood, May 14th ; Phytcecia cylindrica, Dorking, May 28th ; An- 

 thribus albinus, Oxted, June 4th ; Telephorus translucidus, Mickleham, June 8th ; 

 Oodes helopioides, Wicken Fen, July 23rd ; Dasytes niger, Winchester, June 18th ; 



