3220 Insects. 



insects found in the locality mentioned by Mr. Douglas, namely, Chersotis Agathina, 

 we never find flying until the evening is so far advanced that we can scarcely see it, 

 but then it hovers round the dense bundles of heath-flowers, somewhat slowly, and 

 may be easily captured by keeping a steady look-out about a yard in front of your feet. 

 Hypenodes humidalis is also very regular in its time of flying, not one being visible 

 until about half-past 6, p. m., when you may take them in plenty until about 8 o'clock. 

 The pretty little Ehodaria sanguinalis has this season shown a partiality to the same 

 time of evening as Hypenodes humidalis, but not so decidedly ; this however may in 

 part have been owing to the intense heat of the weather from the 24th to the end of 

 June, the principal time of their flight. I visited New Brighton sand-hills to look 

 for them on the 27th ult., the day being excessively hot. I succeeded in raking up 

 about fifty before 6 o'clock p. m.; they then began to fly, and I took nearly as many 

 more in little more than half an hour, when I was obliged to leave them flying on all 

 sides, in order to catch the ferry for Liverpool and the train for Warrington. — James 

 Cooper; Museum, Warrington, July 2, 1851. 



Capture of Elachista locupletella, (Stainton's List). — .To prove how often a rarity 

 may be stumbled upon by the merest chance, the present example may serve as an il- 

 lustration. On my way to dinner about a month ago, my attention was drawn to 

 the top of an Epilobium, on seeing it all twisted together. Having ascertained that it 

 contained a chrysalis, I cut it off and carried it home. For a week I watched it very 

 carefully, and was at last rewarded with a fine specimen of the above-named insect. 

 For several days afterwards I eagerly sought the place from whence I took the chry- 

 salis, and found it in plenty. I had concluded at first that it was an Epilobium-feeder, 

 but investigation showed otherwise, as but one plant was near the place. The ground 

 is marshy, and abounds with reeds, docks, white ladies' bed-straw, and forget-me-not. 

 — John Scott; London Works, Renfrew, July 21, 1851. 



Inquiry respecting Pupa. — I inclose two pupa?, and shall be much obliged if you 

 can inform me what insects they belong to. One is white and soft, this I have put into 

 spirits of wine ; the other is inclosed in a hard brown skin. I found them in the fol- 

 lowing manner. On the 17th of last May I observed a large female wasp fly into a 

 hole in the sandy bank of the river Aine ; in a few seconds another wasp, also appa- 

 rently a large impregnated female, flew up to the same place, but seeing me did not 

 enter the hole. The one that I first noticed shortly came out again, when I captured 

 it with my forceps. It was a large female of Vespa vulgaris. Wishing to ascertain 

 whether it had formed any part of its nest in the bank, I dug away some of the sand 

 with my stick, and at the distance of five or six inches from the surface, I turned out 

 the pupae that T have sent you : I noticed several of the soft white ones, but only one 

 of the others. They were contained in oval cells formed in the sand; the cells were 

 tolerably smooth internally, but had no lining of any kind. The sand was loose and 

 crumbling, and as I had no other tool than my walking-stick, I could not ascertain 

 whether the cells were arranged together in any manner. After digging as deeply as 

 I could into the bank, I found no traces of the nests of the wasps. — R. H. Meade ; 

 Bradford, Yorkshire, July 15, 1851. 



[The pupa? exhibit a fully developed prothorax, and are clearly those of a coleop- 

 terous insect, and one of the Heteromera, but 1 cannot pronounce on the genus. I 

 consider the evidence insufficient to show any parasitism. — E. N.~\ 



On the Occurrence of the Pupa of a prcdaccous Beetle in the vicinity of the Nests of 

 WilH Bees. — On the ."Hst of May I noticed a number of wild bees (Andrena albicans) 



