1868.] 



179 



When this is broken oflf the pupa, if there be one, will be visible, as it liardly forma 

 any web, and fills the space in the shoot ; but if, as is more often the case, the 

 larva has beeu destroyed by an ichneumon^ a flat, pellucid membrane will be visible 

 inside the shoot, and within this the ichnetbmon pupa lies. After working where- 

 ever I could find young firs for three weeks, with various success, finding few pup89 

 and many ichneumons, with occasionally a larva different from the ordinary ones, 

 I chanced, on May 1st, to find a pupa in a side shoot (one of the circle), and by 

 close searching procured one or two more. These were light brown pupae (those 

 of ti(/rionana being dark brown) , and instead of lying in the shoot with the head 

 downwards, were in the reverse position, the head being towards the tip of the 

 shoot, the hard inside of which had been carefully gnawed away, leaving a passage 

 of escape for the moth, but safely closed from any intruder by the natural bracts. 

 From these, in the middle of May, I bred Retinia pinivorana ; turionana, having 

 commenced to emerge a fortnight earlier. 



In the meantime the larvae collected first had been feeding voraciously, re- 

 quiring plenty of fresh food, but at the same time being very restless, and had 

 now most of them spun up ; and, to my great surprise, I bred from them nearly 

 twenty pinivorana. Thus I had accidentally hit upon both the larva and the habits 

 of the pupa of this species. Supposing the larva to heB^ioliana, I did not take any 

 description, but they were dark red or liver coloured, and, if I recollect right, 

 without markings, but with the ordinary brown head and plate. 



My good fortune did not end here, for on June 26th a pinicolana emerged, and 

 in July two of Phycis abietella. This last must, I think, have been produced from 

 a pale grey larva with darker longitudinal stripes, and I think a few short scattered 

 hairs, which had rather a different form to the other larvae ; but as it fed in the 

 shoots in the same way, I had concluded it to belong to an allied species. 



The only other insect that I bred from this lot of fir-shoots was Sericoris 

 urticana ! ! Polyphagous as the larva is, I did not expect it from such a pabulum 

 as this. — Chas. G. Barrett, Haslemere, 16th September^ 1868. 



The Recori) of Zoological Literature, vol. iv. ; part 2, Arachnida, Myriapoda, 

 Insecta; by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. London: John Van Voorst, 1868. 



The hopes we previously expressed that this elaborate Record would be divided 

 into sections, so as to enable students of one branch of Natural History to know 

 what their fellow-workers were doing without having to pay for a bulky volume, 

 a considerable portion of which would be useless to them, have been realized, and 

 the portion recording the work done in the above-mentioned classes during 18G7 

 can now be had separately, as can the two others concerning the VertehratOf 

 Crustacea, and lower animals respectively. As it is, the present part extends to 

 300 pages, almost totally occupied by the Insecta. We feel sure that entomologists 

 will duly appreciate the boon accorded to them. It may be worthy of consideration 

 whether the size and price might not yet be much reduced with advantage, 

 by omitting the brief abstract of the characters of the new genera. It suf- 

 fices that a worker at any order or family should know what has been done, and 

 where to find the special paper he may require : moreover, as it is impossible that 

 one man can duly appreciate the relative value of characters in all orders of insects. 



