59;4 



Insects. 



send you for examination a pair of what I believe to be the second species : it is 

 smaller, and without the spot on either side. I am well aware that S. Davus is very 

 variable, but there must be some limit to variation. It is said that the larva of Davus 

 is unknown, but I have often had the larva and bred the butterfly, and so have many 

 others ; and I have always taken what I call Davus on low moors or mosses, like Chat 

 Moss; but what 1 take on the high mountains of Scotland appears to me to be dis- 

 tinct, and few men have had tbe opportunity of examinino^ it in its native liabitat as 

 I have done. — Richard Weaver ; November 13, 1857. [The mountain specimens sent 

 me by Mr. Weaver are exactly as he describes them, without spots ; but I do not 

 wish to express any fresh opinion as to its specific difference. — E. iV.] 



Plentiful Occurrence of Trochilium vespiforme in England. — In the summer of 

 1855 a farm servant caught, amongst a host of other insects, two of the above- 

 named, but in very sad condition. The following summer none were obtained, but 

 in 1857 enough were caught to make a goodly series in my own private cabinet. I 

 have every reason to believe that this is another Trochilium taken only in this country, 

 and hardly known to the continental collectors. For several reasons I must decline 

 giving the locality for some time to come. — James Gardner ; 52, High Holborn. 



Habits and Localily of Antlirocera Minos. — Although not yet able to trace this 

 insect through all its stages, owing to want of success in rearing the larva, it may be 

 interesting to many entomologists to know that in the pupa state its habits are very 

 different from those of our other species of Anthrocera. The cocoon is not pointed 

 at the ends, but oval, of an earthy colour, and, in the instances in which I suc- 

 ceeded in finding it, attached to a stone at the surface of the ground. From the 

 profusion in which the perfect insect exists in a very restricted locality, and the fact 

 that only two cocoons rewarded a very careful search, I am inclined to think it is 

 ordinarily placed among the roots of the grass, but the locality is one in which the 

 most adventurous pupa digger would hesitate to commence operations with his trowel. 

 The fields in which alone Minos is found in abundance are of what has been well 

 called the pavement order, platforms of solid rock with narrow avenues of verdure be- 

 tween : this is the character of extensive districts in the county of Galway, apparently 

 caused by the long-continued action of currents of water, which has removed all 

 earthy substances, and left exposed the rocky skeleton of the globe for the edification 

 of geologists and the excoriation of the shins of the hasty insect hunter. Little value 

 as one would suppose these stony tracts could be to any one but the naturalist, they 

 are elaborately divided into sections by huge walls of rounded limestone boulders, so 

 ingeniously piled up, without mortar, as frequently to bring down on the unwary tres- 

 passer who essays to cross them a dangerous avelanche of stone. Filipendulae is the 

 only other species of Anthrocera I have observed in the West of Ireland; it flies in 

 company with Minos, in the proportion of about one to ten, and is readily distin- 

 guished on the wing by its larger size and brighter colouring. Minos is apparently 

 very little subject to variation : out of one thousand specimens taken this season only 

 two presented any noticeable difference from the ordinary type ; in these the whole 

 surface of the wings is snffused with crimson. They fly actively in the sunshine 

 during the early part of the day, but after 4 p.m. are to be cnptured with the greatest 

 ease asleep on the flowers; in some favoured spots every daisy will have its tenant, 

 and 1 have seen as many as eight clustered on a dandelion, giving it at a little dis- 

 tance the appearance of a gorgeous crimson flower, enchanting alike to the naturalist 

 and the painter. — Edivin Birchall ; Dublin, November 28, 1857. 



