18Vt8.] 175 



I sampled these ova myself, but I canuot endorse the above tribute, 

 as (owing doubtless to their being somewhat stale) they had a flavour 

 (faint, but decided) of sulphuretted hydrogen and decayed animal 

 substance ! The perfect insects, also, are unsuitable in their imported 

 condition for human food, having a noticeable " buggy " flavour ; for 

 the purposes for which they are imported, however, I do not doubt 

 that they would be satisfactory. 



Some idea of the enormous swarms of O. mercenaria may be 

 gathered from the fact that it is being imported hy the ton ! and I have 

 calculated, somewhat roughly, that each ton will contain little short of 

 250 millions of individuals ! ! As to the ova, they are beyond 

 computation. 



In conclusion, I wish to express my acknowledgments to Mr. E. 

 McLachlan and to Mr. G. C. Champion, who have kindly informed 

 me of this importation ; and also to Mr. Praschkauer, who has been 

 good enough to furnish me with a large amount of material, both in 

 imagines and ova. 



St. Abbs, Worple Eoad, Wimbledon, S.W. : 

 June, 1898. 



SOME EEMAEKS ON THE COLOUR-VARIETIES OF THE SPECIES 

 OF ORSODACNA OCCURRING- IN BRITAIN. 



BT G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



The numerous varieties of these species are tabulated at con- 

 siderable length by Weise [Naturg. Ins. Deutschl., vi, pp. 4—7 (1882)], 

 but he does not seem to have noticed that some of the forms are 

 restricted to one sex only. As one of our British species, O. lineola, 

 Panz., has been fairly common this year, in nearly all its varieties, on 

 the hawthorn blossom, at Ashtead, Surrey, in the same spot where I 

 first met with it in 1878, some account of its various forms will be of 

 interest to British Coleopterists. Of the second species, O. cerasi, 

 Linn., which may be readily distinguished from O. lineola by the 

 almost glabrous and more sparsely punctured upper surface, I possess 

 very little material, but still suflBcient to be able to add one of the 

 known European varieties {glahrata, Fabr.) to the British list. 



O. LiKEOLA, Panz. 

 Of this species the following forms are represented in my 

 British collection : — 



1. Testaceous, a dorsal vitta on the prothorax, the head and breast, and sometimea 

 the suture of the elytra, black (0. lineola, Panz.) — Ashtead [?]. 



