186 [January, 



force on the morrow, the beginning of this month being the time it was due. In the 

 morning, however, all was changed. A thick damp fog spread over land and sea, 

 and it looked like anything but a fit day for the pursuit of Entomology. We started, 

 however, soon after 10 for the shore, but when we got there we could not see the 

 Island, though its distance was scarcely more than half a mile. A boat was waiting 

 on the shore to take us across, and before we had rowed over the short channel which 

 separated us from the Island the sun began to peep out, and by 12 o'clock the fog 

 "was quite dispersed. On landing, we passed over the headland which guards the 

 south-eastern corner of the Island, and came upon a most lovely view of a bay 

 studded with islands and rocks of all shapes, around which the sea birds were 

 wheeling in vast numbers, filling the air with their plaintive cry. It was here, on 

 the very edge of the cliff, that we found S. irroreUa amongst the lichen-covered 

 stones. Scarcely any of them were on wing j and it was not so very easy to see 

 them, as the stones were covered with a bright orange lichen, which harmonized very 

 nearly with the colour of the insect. On close inspection, however, they were found 

 in considerable quantities, and in excellent condition ; and from their sluggish 

 habits were easily captured. We soon boxed more than 50 of them, and were satis- 

 fied, though we continued to meet with them along the west side of the Island also. 

 No doubt it was on this orange coloured lichen that the larvae were fed. — Ciennell 

 WiiKmsON, Castlemartin, Pembroke : Novemler 23rd, 1887. 



Food of the larva of Aphomia sociella, L. — In January, 1884, I was peeling 

 off the bark of an old willow, which stands in the middle of a swamp, hoping to 

 find the cocoons of Dicranura furcula. Behind a large piece of loose bark I came 

 upon a number of very tough silken galleries coated with the brown decayed fibre 

 of the bark, and containing some good-sized whitish larvse. I took home a batch of 

 about a dozen of these galleries spun close side by side. Shortly afterwards I found 

 another batch of similar galleries in my workshop, under a board lying among a lot 

 of old sawdust. From both these batches of larvse Aphomia sociella emerged. 

 This was rather a puzzle, as supposing the larvse to have gone to these places to 

 hibernate, where could bumble bees find a place in which to form a nest, in the one 

 case in a swamp, in the other in a stone-flagged yard ? This year the Rev. H. 

 Williams, of Croxton, informed me that he had found a wasp's nest infested with 

 these larvfe, which fed on the papery walls of the nest, and not in the cells. Is it 

 not possible that the true food of this larva is the woody fibre, whether of decayed 

 bark, or of the nests of various Aculeate Hymenoptera ? I may add that Mrs. 

 Hutchinson, of Q-rantsfield, to whom I wrote for information concerning the habits 

 of this species, has, in reply, kindly forwarded me two larvae spun up under old bark 

 exactly in the same way as those I found on the willow ; there the species swarms 

 about old furze bushes which would supply abundance of decayed fibre. Perhaps 

 some one of your numerous readers may be able further to clear up the life-history 

 of this species. — C. E. Digbt, Studland Eectory : November 16fJi, 1887. 



On the supposed Nepticula tormentillella. — I have this year bred several speci- 

 s of a Nepticula feeding in Potentilla tormentilla on the moors of Westmoreland. 

 These do not agree with the description of Nep. tormentillella, but are identical with 



mens 



