14 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the African coast, as both Mr. Hamerton's two specimen and 

 mine are very fresh -looking and unrubbed, as if newly emerged 

 from the pupa. Perhaps the larvae were carried here by some 

 steamer, or perhaps the pupae. 



Readers interested in this subject of the mimicry of D. 

 chrysippus by the female misippus, are referred to Mr. Roland 

 Trimen's paper, ' On some Mimetic Analogies among African 

 Butterflies,' published in the ' Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society,' vol. xxvi. Part the Third. 1869. Also to his ' South 

 African Butterflies,' vol. i., pp. 279-280. 



Salamanca, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 

 Nov. 26th, 1895. 



SAWFLY LARV^ IN 1895. 

 By E. F. Chawner. 



As far as the Lyndhurst district of the New Forest is con- 

 cerned, 1895 has been a year of surprises. The spring season 

 was very bad, many common flies being altogether absent. I only 

 saw one Tenthredo viridis (a female), though I searched carefully, 

 wishing to obtain specimens for the purpose of breeding from 

 them. Tenthredo livida was quite a rarity, and I did not see a 

 single Tenthredopsis micro cephala where the year before they had 

 simply swarmed. Even the ubiquitous Allantus arcuatus and 

 Dolems gonagra were scarce. Just a few species appeared in their 

 usual numbers, the most noticeable being Nematus paviduSf 

 Croesus septeiitrionalis and C. latipes, and the larvae of Emphytus 

 serotinus. Such scarcity of flies naturally pointed to a bad larval 

 season, at least so I supposed, but on the whole have been agree- 

 ably mistaken. The change began at the end of August with the 

 discovery of several large hatches of Nematus tibialis on some 

 young acacias growing in one of the enclosures. Where they 

 can have come from is a mystery, for I have frequently searched 

 those acacias, and until this season have never found any larvae on 

 them. 



On August 29th I went to Stafl'ord, and there reaped a 

 really good harvest off alder and poplar, birch being most 

 unprofitable this year, and sallow little better. From a plantation 

 of young poplars I took a fair number of the curious larvae of 

 Nematus compressicorniSj generally feeding two or three on a leaf, 

 each individual surrounded by its remarkable *' palisade," which 

 prevents any possibility of mistaking the species. Besides these 

 I found two unknown species, which I hope to be able to verify as 

 flies next year. But the alders were by far the most productive. 

 In one small thicket larvae of Camponiscus luridiventris simply 

 swarmed, hardly a leaf being without one or more of the curious 

 flat creatures. A few full-fed Crcesus varus, remnants of a large 



