1871.) 955 
Note on the flight of Cynips.—In a posthumous paper by the late Mr. Walsh upon 
the Hurytomides (The American Entom. and Botanist, Vol. 2, p. 333), that careful 
observer, in the course of some remarks upon the wonderful restriction of the oak- 
apples of Cynips Q. spongifica to a very limited space, in spite of the surrounding 
circumstances being apparently equally favourable to their development, states his 
profound conviction that the gall-flies making those excrescences, although they 
have full-sized wings, scarcely ever use them. He further observes, that, out of 
thousands bred by him, he never knew an individual, whether of the vernal or 
autumnal type, to take wing spontaneously ; and that only on one or two occasions, 
when he had placed the perfect insects on oaks to experiment as to the laws of 
their reproduction, had he seen one of them take wing, and then only for a yard or 
two. This reminds me of the only occasion upon which I have myself seen Cynips 
on the wing, upwards of fifteen years ago, on a hot morning about the end of May, 
when a full-winged example of one of our largest species settled on my coat. That 
individual must, however, have flown for a considerable distance, as I was walking 
in the middle of the highest part of the road on Wimbledon Common, facing 
Coombe Wood, and the insect flew down on me,—there being no oak-trees within 
many hundred yards. I do not know whether other observers have found the 
Cynipide so sluggish as Mr. Walsh’s note implies,—or whether his observations are 
restricted to the single American species. I have myself seen no Cynips flying but 
that above mentioned.—E. C. Ryx, 10, Lower Park Fields, Putney. 
Capture of a Tortriv new to Britain.—On the 3rd of July, 1870, I took several 
specimens of a Tortriz which I found in abundance on Craig Maige, a lofty moun- 
tain near the foot of Loch Laggan, in the county of Inverness. They flew up at 
every step on a ridge about 3000 feet above the sea. Last autumn I sent five 
specimens to Mr. Henry Doubleday for his examination, and he pronounced them to 
be varieties of Sericoris irrigwana of Herrich-Schiiffer. It is very similar to 
Daleana, but smaller, and the anterior wings are more pointed—all the specimens 
I took are males. Several other able entomologists have seen my specimens, and 
are of opinion that the species is distinct from Daleana, though Mr. Doubleday 
thought it possible that the latter was only a variety of irriguana.—N. Cooke, 
Liscard, 2nd March, 1871. 
Capture of Hadena assimilis—On the 2nd of July, 1870, I took two fine males 
at sugar, at the foot of the above-named mountain, and on the 3rd I saw a male 
and female at sugar, but unfortunately only secured the female ; the male flew at my 
lamp and escaped. I do not adopt the name of Orymodes ewulis for this species, 
because I believe the two are quite distinct species; I have compared a continental 
specimen of ewulis with my Scotch specimens of assimilis, from which it appeared 
to be quite distinct, and the larva figured as that of evulis, of which I possess a 
copy, is more like the larva of an Hepialus than that of any other genus with which 
I am acquainted, and it seems to me very improbable that a moth like assimilis 
could come from such a larva.—Ib, 
[Dr. Staudinger set out more than 400 specimens of Crymodes evulis, of which 
fully 200 were bred—hardly two of these were precisely similar, varying from our 
