2830 Insects. 



ployed, during the last week of March, in taking larvae of Depressaria from broom. 

 While staying a few days in East Lothian, I took a number off the broom bushes in 

 Presmenan Wood, in company with Mr. Hepburn : I have little doubt they are the 

 same as those exhibited at the Entomological Society, by Mr. Douglas. They are 

 elongate, depressed, livid brown, with darker head and shield : the body covered, 

 under a lens, with small glossy warts, each bearing a fine hair. On the same day, we 

 beat the full grown larva of a Tortrix from the leafless twigs of the birch. — R. F. 

 Logan, Duddingston, May 4, 1850. 



Palpi of Micropteryx. — I have to-day taken several specimens of Micropteryx sub- 

 purpurella, and find Mr. Stainton is right in his conjecture that the palpi are not 

 porrected when the insect is alive (see monograph of the genus, Ent. Trans.), but are 

 almost entirely concealed among the hairs of the head. — Id. 



Endurance of cold in Plutella fissella. — While walking with my father in Dud- 

 dington Park, on the afternoon of the 6th of January last, everything being bound up 

 in frost, and the temperature about 32° Fahr., he observed something move on the 

 top of a paling, and, upon examining it more minutely, we found it to be a lively spe- 

 cimen of Plutella fissella of Stainton's ' Catalogue.' Having carried it home, I resolved 

 to experiment a little on its powers of enduring cold ; and accordingly placed it in a 

 pill-box, outside the window, near a thermometer. In this position it remained for 

 some time, and endured a temperature of 20° Fahr. without injury, and without even 

 becoming torpid ; as on shaking it out of the box on its back, it immediately regained 

 its ordinary position, using its legs with ease and agility. — Id., May 11, 1850. 



Micropteryx Callhella. — This little insect has again made its appearance with us. 

 We have found it on the wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), the bulbous crowfoot 

 (Ranunculus bulbosus), on the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) as usual, and on 

 one of a distinct group of plants, the Composites, positively swarming on the dandelion 

 (Leontodon taraxacum.) It still remains a mystery on what this pretty little gem 

 feeds, while in the larva state. It certainly seems possible that some one or more of 

 the Ranunculaceae may furnish it with food, but at present it is only possible. The 

 insects captured by us have appeared in a grassy meadow, in some instances veiy far 

 removed from Caltha palustris, though surrounded by ranunculaceous vegetation. — 

 Peter Inchbald ; Storthes Hall, Huddersfield, May 18, 1850. 



Dryophilus anobioides. — On Saturday last, whilst brushing about in the hollow in 

 Plumstead Wood, amongst heath and broom, I was fortunate to take this rare and 

 interesting little insect which had so long been a desideratum with me. Finding it con- 

 fined to one little spot, where I captured four specimens in about half an hour, I was 

 induced to endeavour to trace out w r hich broom-stump it frequented, remembering 

 that Mr. J. F. Stephens, in his manual, records its capture on a broom-stump at 

 Coombe Wood, in April, 1833. After a short time I found one all dead and dry, and 

 perforated in all directions ; I went carefully up to it and shook it into my net and 

 was rewarded by one specimen, and two of Hylastes rhododactylus. I therefore at 

 once took possession of the stump, which I broke into small pieces and brought home, 

 and from it I have now bred four more specimens, and about six or eight of H. 

 rhododactylus ; this latter feeds under the bark in the larva state : the little round 

 holes perforated nearly through the stem, are evidently the work of Dryophilus : the 

 joints of the antenna; in the male are much longer than in the female, and the eyes 

 more prominent. My friend, Mr. F. Smith, took one near the same spot in April, 

 1848, and another in 1849. — Samuel Stevens ; 24, Bloomsbury Street, May 17, 1850. 



