8246 



Insects. 



reference. A reflection, and I conclude. How slender is the line of demarcation 

 separating instinct from reason ! and how marvellous is the creative power that could 

 have imparted, to an insect so insignificant, faculties such as I have attempted, how- 

 ever feebly, to describe! — Vincent dementi ; Pelerboro, Canada West, July 26, 1862. 

 — Communicated by the Rev. J. F. Dawson, M.A. 



Description of the Larva of Phytonomus Pollux. — I have this season bred several 

 specimens of Phytonomus Pollux and the variety alternatus, from larvae found feeding 

 on (Enanthe pimpinelloides, in the vicinity of Exeter, and not- having ever seen a 

 description of these larvae in any work, I beg to append one for the use of others. It 

 is of a pale yellowish green colour, with the head black and rather small, the three 

 anterior segments somewhat suffused with blackish green ; this is continued along the 

 sides of the larvae above the spiracular line to the penultimate segment of the tail. 

 There are lappet-like projections from the third anterior segment to the penultimate 

 one of the tail, forming eight bright pale yellow spots; the spiracles themselves black, 

 each of the yellow lappets have two black a dots placed horizontally ; each segment, which 

 is much wrinkled, has eight minute brownish dots, placed on an elevated ridge, each 

 surmounted by a bristle. Legs very rudimentary, the anterior indicated only by black 

 points. Length of the body 2 — 2£ lines. These larvae went into pupae on the 28th of 

 June, and came out on the 10th of July. They spin a beautiful open net-work cocoon, 

 the meshes of which are nearly round, the angles being obliterated by the adhesion of 

 the transverse lines forming the net-work. The pupae do not lay at the bottom of the 

 cocoon, but are elevated to a considerable angle at the head, so that the cocoon in reality 

 is shorter than the pupa, but very wide in proportion. These cocoons are not made of 

 silk, but of a gelatinous substance, semitransparent and tough ; they are not soluble in 

 nitric acid, which is very remarkable: whatever this substance may be its power of 

 resistance of this powerful solvent is something very strange. I immersed a cocoon 

 in this acid for three hours, and it came out as perfect as it went in. The larvae of 

 this species feed in the flowers and unopened buds of the CEnanthe in May and June, 

 and when feeding, to compensate for the want of legs, they turn themselves half round 

 the umbellules, and so hang on by pressure of their bodies against the stem. The 

 varieties of the imago of this species are very striking and very decided, and might 

 easily be mistaken for distinct species if colour and markings were only considered, but 

 form and sculpture stamp the species. — Edward Parfitt ; Devon and Exeter Insti- 

 tution, October 2, 1862. 



Description of the Larva of Phytonomus Rumicis. — The larva of this species is very 

 much like the preceding, the principal difference being that the three anterior segments 

 are more suffused with blackish green, and this colour is continued beneath to the end of 

 the third segment from the apex of the head, the rest of the under side being yellow. 

 This colour penetrates the other in a narrow stripe to the head. The habits and every 

 other particular the same as P. Pollux. I have two pupae of a parasite which spin 

 up in the cocoons of this species which have, not yet come out ; they are probably 

 Ichneumons, as they have all the appearance of such : these will not I suppose come 

 out before the spring ? — Id. 



Notes on Phryganidce from South Devon. — Having lately made a short stay in South 

 Devon, chiefly with the object of collecting Phryganidaj, I thought that a few words 

 on the success met with might be acceptable to the readers of the ' Zoologist,' and 

 perhaps induce some to turn their attention to these much neglected but highly inte- 

 resting insects. Had the weather been liner it is possible that more might have been 



