Insects 



6067 



M. Giienee has done, nor to pooh! pooh I them, as mere relations of analogy, as 

 Mr. Weslvvooil pro])oses: these opposite conclusions remind me of opinions I have 

 sometimes heard expressed of a very attractive lady, the young deciding that she was 

 quite pass ee, the more mature that she was "ridiculously young;" but these views 

 did not deprive the lady of existence, any more than the conflicting opinions of 

 entomologists annihilate my isomyious pairs. — Edward Newman. 



Larva of Harpalyce sacjitlaria. — Under this title Mr. Brown gives (Zool. 6030) a 

 description of a larva reared from the egg; so far this communication is interesting; 

 but how comes the writer to confound the name, which is derived from the beautiful 

 sagittate mark on the fore wing, with ihe idea that the larva feeds on the Sagitiaria? 

 Is there any record or evidence of any kind that this arrow-marked insect feeds on the 

 arrowhead? Such a coincidence would be most astounding. Would it not be well 

 to try the larva of this insect, when again reared from the egg, with the various species 

 of Chenopodium which occur in the neighbourhood where it is found? Will Mr. Bond, 

 to whom Mr. Brown has alluded, obligingly give the readers of the ' Zoologist' what 

 information he possesses on this subject? — Id. 



Occurrence of Plerophorus Lienigianus in Britain.— Iw the course of the year 1857 

 Mr. Harding recorded, in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 5437), the discovery of a Pterophorus 

 in the following words :— " The larva was feeding on the under side of the leaves of 

 the common wormwood ; its presence is easily detected by the white appearance of the 

 leaves; the larva is light green ; full fed in June ; imago out in July : it is very local, 

 and far from common." Mr. Harding associates with this insect the name of 

 similidactylus, but I cannot find the authority for this name. Mr. Doubleday, who 

 has well examined the specimens, agrees with me that they differ from all our ascer- 

 tained British species; and Mr. Stainton, having carefully compared it with Zellers 

 description of Pterophorus Lienigianus, in ' Linnea Entomologica,' vol. vi. p. 380, 

 believes it identical with that species. — Id. 



Ants -nest £?ee^/e5.— Yesterday I made ray first essay at examining an ants' nest for 

 the tenant beetles, and was deli{,'hted with the new forms of life and habit revealed 

 to me. I found a nest of Formica rufa, about a small cart-load, and sat myself down 

 to examine it. The occupiers, or at least some of them, were lazily clearing out the 

 entrances, reminding one of the preparations made for his expected guesls by the land- 

 lord of a Highland hostelry; but I could not see any hexapod lodgers in this hotel: 

 so I boldly thrust in my hands and lifted as much of the nest as I could into a large 

 sheet of while paper. The first thing that surprised me was the heat of the nest, the 

 temperature being very sensibly greater than that of my hands; but I had no leisure 

 to think much about this, for I had to free my hands from the ants, which clung lo 

 them tenaciously, yet without biting, and while doing this the strong odour of formic 

 acid was very perceptible. The ants swarmed out of the heap of wooden debris which 

 lay in ihe middle of my paper: I swept them off with a bit of stick, and after repeating 

 the process two or three times I began to move the material before me gently backward 

 and forward, taking up the topmost and largest fragments, and throwing them back on 

 to the nest. By continuing to do this 1 soon got free of most of the ants and the 

 larger pieces of wood, and among the dusty remainder I saw a little tail curled up, 

 which I knew must belong to a Staph.; so I wetted my finger and brought up the 

 entire animal by habeas corpus : it was Leplacinus formicetoruin. Presently I saw a 

 speck shining like ore; I raised it from its degraded position, and recognised Dendro- 

 philus pygnueus. Then a browner and smaller brother was visible— the rare Saprinus 



