27ft THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The perfect insect (fig. 3) emerges about the second week in 

 June, leaving the pupa-case sticking out of the crown of the root 

 (fig. 4). The}' appear ver)' sluggish, crawling to the top of the 

 stems and remaining in the same position for a day or two ; if 

 disturbed they seldom attempt to fly, but run about on the surface 

 of the sand, up another stem, and settle down quietly. The larvse 

 are very subject to ichneumons, of which considerably more are 

 bred than moths ; the name of tliis parasite, I am informed by Mr. 

 Bridgman, of Norwich, is Glypta rubicunda, n. sp., a species of 

 Ichneumonidffi new to science. 



I have found the larvae on various parts of the Essex coast, 

 where the food-plant was growing, and have searched well along 

 the coast from Deal to Sandwich (its old locality), but the 

 Eryngium seems to have almost disappeared from that particular 

 spot, so that my search there has proved fruitless. 



In collecting these larvae it is most important to get up the long 

 pipe-like roots (fig. 5), without injuring the mined portion, with 

 about two or three inches of sound root beyond the mine for the 

 larva to continue feeding in till it is full grown. The roots are 

 very brittle, about the size of an ordinary lead-pencil, some 

 slightly larger, of a light brown colour, and penetrating deep into 

 the sand, the mined portion becoming black and discoloured, 

 very soft, and soon injured, so that the sand must be carefully 

 scraped away from the roots affected till the end of the mined 

 portion is reached; and as this necessitates digging down eight 

 or ten inches, it is rather wearisome work, often ending in 

 disappointment, for if the mined portion is wet and flabby the 

 larva will be found dead in the mine. 



As there is considerable risk in opening the mined roots to 

 examine them, it is best to take all those that appear to contain 

 larvae and place them upright in sand, imitating nature as near 

 as possible. But they are difficult to breed ; at least such is my 

 experience, for I have never bred more than one or two insects 

 out of every dozen mined roots collected, caused, no doubt, by so 

 many of the roots dug up containing larvae killed or stung by 

 ichneumons ; and, again, by the very different conditions one is 

 obliged to adopt in rearing them away from their native habitat. 

 Shepherdess Walk, N. 



INSECT PIGMENTS. 

 By T. D. a. Cockerell, F.Z.S. 



In the final part of his valuable series of papers on Insect 

 Colours, Mr. Coste devotes two pages (Entom. 209-211) to 

 discussing and disproving a supposed hypothesis of mine that 

 the evolutional order of colours was yellow, white, red ; white 

 being developed from yellow, and red from white ! This has so 



