THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 311 



acquainted on British Diptera ; the price is 18*. per volume. 

 On British Hymenoptera we have several excellent works : 

 (1) Shuckard's *Fossorial Hymenoptera,' 1 vol., with descrip- 

 tions of all the species and outlme- figures of the wings of the 

 genera, price 14.9. ; (2) Smith's * Catalogue of the British 

 Bees,' with descriptions of the species and outline figures of 

 the genera, price 6s. ; (3) Smith's * Catalogue of the British 

 Fossorial Hymenoptera,' with descriptions of the species and 

 outline-figures of the wings, price 6s. 



Nyssia lapponaria in Scotland. — In the notice of the 

 obliging but hurried communication made by Mr. Bond on 

 the capture of this insect there are two mistakes, neither of 

 great importance, but both requiring correction. Mr. Roper- 

 Curzon, who is the owner of the insect, is not a clergyman, 

 but a barrister ; and Mr. Meek, not Mr. Curzon, employed 

 Warrington as a collector. Mr. Meek has obligingly shown 

 me the specimen, which is a very beautiful one. The species 

 is figured, in the 'Annals of the Entomological Society of 

 France,' as the Biston lapponaria of Boisduval ; and there is 

 an excellent figure of it (440) in Herrich-Schseffer, but this 

 differs from Mr. Roper-Curzon's specimen in having a distinct 

 crimson medio-dorsal stripe on the thorax, which is scarcely 

 perceptible in the Scotch specimen ; and the Scotch specimen 

 has a distinct yellow costa, which character is scarcely per- 

 ceptible in Herrich-Schseffer's figure. It has been suggested 

 that the Lapponaria of Boisduval is a variety of Pomonaria of 

 Esper, also figured by Herrich-SchaefFer (439) ; but I think, 

 without sufficient reason : Herrich-Schaeffer places both in 

 the genus Amphidasys (p. 100). 



Timarcha tenebricosa. — The plump metallic-green larva 

 which A. S. F. enclosed is the larva of a beetle, Timarcha 

 tenebricosa : it will feed freely^ on a plant called clivers or 

 cleavers [Galium aparine), found in every hedge, and 

 remarkable for the tenacity with which it clings to everything 

 it touches ; this plant and Rubia peregrina climb by a 

 process very rare among plants, the contact of minute hooks 

 scattered over the surface of the leaves and stalks. The 

 beetle in all its stages confines itself to hedge-weeds ; and, 

 although the specimen was found in a garden, you may rely 

 on receiving no material injury from its depredations. 



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