Insects. 4767 



especially butterflies; and would deprive of half their meaning the lines of that 

 beautiful poem ('The Butterfly's Birth-day'), which say 



" When bursting forth to life and light, 

 The offspring of enraptur'd May, 

 The butterfly, on pinions bright, 

 Launch'd mfull splendour on the day. 



" Unconscious of a mother's care, * 



No infant wretchedness she knew ; 

 But as she felt the vernal air, 

 At once to full perfection grew." 



Having thus directed Mr. Newman's attention to the more important part of the 

 subject, it would be superfluous to add the reasons which induced me individually to 

 call, and for the present still to consider, Gonepteryx Khamni " double-brooded." — 

 William Henri/ Hawker; Homdean, Hants, June 21, 1855. 



Capture of Nomada borealis at Gosforth, Northumberland. — I have taken a fine 

 series of females and two males of that beautiful bee Nomada borealis: they are 

 parasitical upon Andrena bicolor, and were entering its burrows when captured. The 

 locality was a slippery bank of dry friable clay, in a pine-wood, at Gosforth, and the time 

 the latter end of April, — one of those cold gusty days (of which we have had so many), 

 relieved only occasionally by a gleam of sunshine ; and it is somewhat curious that I 

 have not taken a specimen since, although I have watched the locality on sunnier and 

 more "likely" days. — Thomas John Bold ; Angus Court, Bigg Market, May 31, 1855. 



Tenacity of Life in a Bembidium. — Yesterday, when collecting Bembidia on the 

 shingly borders of the Thames, I observed a curious-looking insect endeavouring to 

 get out of a small hollow left in the mud by the removal of a pebble. On closer 

 examination I found the mysterious object to be the head, thorax and two fore-legs of 

 Bembidium concinnum, which had, no doubt, been severed from the remainder of its 

 corporation in scraping over the shingle with my digger. About five minutes after- 

 wards I encountered the trunk and remaining limbs of this unfortunate insect, and 

 finding them quite dead, turned again to the fore-quarters, which were as active, on 

 being touched, as if no injury had been sustained : the strength and vigour of this 

 portion seemed unimpaired, but, from the impossibility of maintaining the balance, it 

 repeatedly rolled back to the bottom of the cell, not being practised in the pas de deux. 

 I marked the spot with a forget-me-not (a rather appropriate mark), and examined 

 the living fragment at intervals of five minutes ; it was quiescent till disturbed, but 

 then became very active : this continued up to three-quarters of an hour from the 

 time of first observing it, and in another five minutes all motion had ceased ; it 

 seemed as if its powers had failed suddenly. I mention this incident, because it 

 seems to me somewhat singular that the fore portion should be so much more reten- 

 tive of life than the rest of the frame in those races in which that portion is not the 

 principal seat of the nervous mass ; in the Vertebrata the case appears very different. 

 I ought to mention, however, that one of the elytra seemed to indicate that some 

 further injury had happened to that portion than the mere separation. — George 

 Guyon ; Richmond, Surrey, June 20, 1855. 



