Insects, 4529 



tion, except occasionally in the general depth of colouring. About seven weeks from 

 being hatched they retired just beneath the surface of the earth, and changed to the 

 pupa state : this change appears to be the most critical of all, for but one completed it, 

 and this has since died, the rest dying at different stages of development. The pupa 

 itself is about seven or eight lines long, the posterior extremity slightly elongated and 

 furnished with a double, stiff, curved spine, and enclosed in a strong though not hard 

 cocoon formed of silk and particles of mould. The failure in changing to the pupa 

 state is the more vexing as their growth throughout the larva state was remarkably 

 free and healthy. The perfect insect, from some cause or other, was very rare this 

 year, insomuch that in twelve days, working several hours each day, I obtained but 

 six specimens ; it did not, however, vary from its usual time of appearance. With 

 regard to the food of this larva, though I have no doubt it is (here at least) solely 

 heath, yet those I reared infinitely preferred the plantain, and the green, unripe seed- 

 vessels in preference to the leaves ; in fact, for the last month I fed them entirely on 

 the seed-stems ; they would also eat the common dock. When stretched motionless 

 along a green shoot of heath they are almost indistinguishable, and, on whatever plant 

 feeding, it would be difficult to detect them without an exceedingly close search, which 

 may (together with its being thinly dispersed over a large tract of ground, thickly 

 clothed with its food) account for its having hitherto been unobserved. Out of about 

 ninety specimens of the perfect insect, containing about an equal proportion of both 

 sexes, that I have myself captured within four years, not one before ever laid an egg; 

 iu fact, I think it may be correctly laid down as a general rule that the further the 

 Noctuidae are removed from the Bombycidae in form and structure, the more infre- 

 quent are the instances of eggs being laid after capture ; and probably a good entomo- 

 logical anatomist, if there be such among our collectors, would be able to give some 

 structural reason for this, and on which some useful generic distinctions might be 

 based. I fear that by this time many will have thought me needlessly prolix in the 

 description of one species only, but in reading and comparing descriptions given by 

 some authors with the subjects described, I have often thought that they might, with 

 great propriety, say each to himself, " brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio ;" and, at the 

 risk of running into the opposite error, I have endeavoured to avoid this one. I have 

 taken as accurate a coloured drawing as I am able of this larva, and as I hear that 

 Messrs. Westwood and Humphreys are issuing a new edition of their beautiful work, 

 I shall be too happy to place it at their service, if they should consider it of any use 

 to them, and I take this opportunity of so doing through the medium of the pages 

 of the 'Zoologist.' — Octavius Pickard-Cambridge ; Bloxworlh, Dorset, October 25, 

 1854. 



Notes on the Capture of some of the rarer British HydrocaniharidcB. 

 By the Rev. Hamlet Clark, M.A. 



It is hardly matter for surprise that these groups of water- 

 beetles, however interesting in themselves, have not received from 

 entomologists that attention which has been bestowed upon the 

 Geodephaga, Curculionida;, &c. : their habitats require for their 



