m THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Epunda lichenea.— A new Food-plant. — On the 8th instant I 

 was looking over an old green-house when Linaria cymbalaria was 

 permitted to grow and trail along on the shelves behind the flower 

 pots, when my attention was arrested by seeing a number of leafless 

 stems standing erect, and in searching for the cause, I removed several 

 pots and behind each, among the ivy-leaved snapdragon, I found the 

 culprits, a dozen Epunda lichenea ; this plant has not hitherto been 

 recorded as food for this larva. — G. C. Bignell, 7, Clarence Place, 

 Stonehouse, Plymouth, nth April, 1889. 



Nyssia hispidaria near Coventry. — Being informed that N. his- 

 pidavia was to be taken here, I made up my mind to go in search of it 

 this season, and have been successful in obtaining it. On paying two 

 visits to Coombe Wood, which is about five miles from Coventry, on 

 the 1 6th and 23rd of March, and diligently searching some huudreds 

 of oak trees, I obtained ten males and four females, one of which has 

 deposited a goodly number of eggs. I also took fourteen good speci- 

 mens of Leucophearia, one A . ascularia, and a few P. pilosaria. Sugar- 

 ing a few trees at night brought a few 5. satellitia and C. spadicea 

 which were getting worn. — Frank Burrows, Coventry. 



First Captures. — H. mpicapraria and leucophearia have been very 

 plentiful, A. derivata and A. ascularia, are abundant now, especially 

 the latter. The weather has been exceptionally mild here. — D. H. 

 Stewart, Oxford, April 3rd, 1889. 



Correspondence. 



Huyton Park, Huyton, 



April gth, 1889. 



To the Editor of The Yotmg Naturalist. 

 Sir, — Mr. Briggs is quite correct in saying that the specimen of L. meliloti in the 

 late Mr. Owen's collection, bred a from larva taken by myself in the New Forest, 

 does not in anyway help the solution of the question in dispute as to whether it is 

 a true species. The history of the insect is simply this. When collecting lepidop- 

 tera in the New Forest some years ago, I was in the habit of each evening sending 

 by post to my friend Mr. Owen all the larvae I had gathered together during the 

 day, as I had no time to attend to them. Amongst sundry larvae sent were some 

 L. meliloti. I feel, however, that there is a great deal to be learnt from the careful 

 microscopical examination of the genital organs of the lepidoptera. The first person 

 I believe who drew attention to this subject was my late friend Mr. Benjamin Cooke, 

 than whom I never met with a keener entomological investigator. Unfortunately, 

 he was one of those reserved persons who kept his investigations to himself, which 

 was a great loss to Entomology. We had the advantage of a most interesting 

 lecture on the subject, at one of the early meetings of the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Entomological Society, when he communicated the result of many years investiga- 

 tions on the subject. He was fully convinced that in the examination of these 

 organs we were in the right direction for the determination of species, and I think 

 he would have published, when mature, all his experience, had not his premature 

 death occurred. I think much of Mr. Pierce's investigations, as I believe they were 

 made without the knowledge that any one else had drawn attention to this interest- 

 ing study, and I must heartily wish him and all others engaged in it every success. 

 —Yours truly, SAMUEL JAMES CAPPER. 



