406 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



felled : the females were engaged in oviposition, which they 

 accomplished by introducing their ovipositor into the fissures 

 made in cutting the trees. It is evident that the trees thus 

 infested will be rapidly destroyed; but M. Berce thinks they 

 might readily be saved by some of the numerous applications 

 recommended to preserve timber. 



Cockchajffer in March. — During the past March one of our 

 men has found several specimens of the common cockchaifer, 

 Melolontha vulgaris (which the country people here call the 

 " May beetle"), buried in the earth. One which the man 

 brought me last week was alive, and in fair condition. As I 

 cannot find a complete life-history of this insect in my books, 

 I am curious to know if these specimens emerged from the 

 pupa during the autumn, and passed the winter in the perfect 

 state under-ground. — C. J. Watkins ; Kmg^s Mill, Pains- 

 wick, March 3, 1871. 



The larva of the common cockchaffer is found in that state 

 during nine months of the year, but of various sizes and 

 in various degrees of maturity. It is said to live four years 

 before turning to a beetle ; and I believe this final change 

 generally takes place in March or April. 



Name of a Moth. — Would you kindly tell me what moth 

 the two enclosed wings belong to ? I cannot find it amongst 

 the Noctuae, to which it evidently belongs, in your work on 

 'British Moths.* I found them in a spider's vieh.-^John A. 

 Lilly ; Collaion Vicarage, August 21, 1871. 



The wings are those of Halias quercana : it is not included 

 in my volumes of* Butterflies' and ' Moths,' because these only 

 comprise the Macro-Lepidoptera. I adopt the division em- 

 ployed in Staudinger's Catalogue ; leaving the Micro-Lepi- 

 doptera for a more competent hand. 



Tenacity of Life. — A somewhat remarkable instance of 

 . tenacity of life in insects came under my observation on 

 July 17th. On the morning in question the enclosed insect, 

 or rather portion of an insect, was crawling up a blade 

 of grass, and attempting to fly. It attracted my attention 

 from the peculiar manner in which the fruitless attempt was 

 mfide. I boxed it, and it lived through the whole of that day 

 and the following night, and up to the following mid-day. How 

 long it had been in this almost bodiless state, before'I saw it, 

 of course I cannot say ; but it certainly lived some thirty or 



