214 ON THE BLIGHT OF OAKS IN THE 
species of Aphis and their natural destroyers the 
Coccinelle. Among the latter, C. 7-punctata, C. 
4-pustulata, and C. 2-punctata greatly predominated. 
The last two are considered to be distinct, and, ac- 
cordingly, have had different specific names assigned 
to them by entomological writers ; but that excellent 
botanist and attentive observer of the economy of 
insects, the late Mr. Edward Hobson, of Manchester, 
assured me that they are opposite sexes of the same 
species, C. 2-punctata being the male and C. 4-pus- 
tulata the female. Some observations of my own, 
made since I have been in possession of Mr. Hobson’s 
communication, had disposed me to regard C. 4-pus- 
tulata as the male and C. 2-pwactata as the female ; 
but I am now convinced that the colours of the sexes 
are liable to vary. 
Through the kindness of my friend Mr. Peter Bar- 
row, I have been favoured with a sight of the fifty- 
second number of Mr. Curtis’s work on ‘British 
Entomology,’ which has been published since the 
above remarks were written. In treating upon Coc- 
cinella ocellata, the author observes that the genus 
Coccinella “is at once a remarkable example of the 
value of structure in the combination of groups, and 
of the little importance of the distribution of colour 
when employed to distinguish species. As a genus, 
Coccinella is so natural that its appellation has never 
been disturbed; whereas the species composing it 
