220 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[November 



only the descriptions of new species recently added to the list, and the 

 experience of the whole front rank of British coleopterists of the 

 present day, but has also this further advantage, viz. that the 

 author, by his great knowledge of languages, has been enabled to 

 comprise all the reliable continental information respecting the 

 life-history of many of our British species, which otherwise would not 

 be obtained. Extensive lists of localities and habitats are given 

 with each insect, in many instances verified by the name of the captor. 

 Most persons will readily recognise the important notes of Mr. G. C. 

 Champion and Mr. J. G. Walker, two of the most prominent and suc- 

 cessful coleopterists of our time. Dr. Sharp and others also render 

 valuable assistance. The work, when completed will form a fitting 

 memorial of the eminent author, who for many years has assiduously 

 laboured in collecting and digesting the materials wherewith by his 

 perseverance and industry he has been enabled to produce so invalu- 

 able a contribution to the literature of the British coleoptera. 



(To be continued.) 



The Pterophorina of Britain. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 

 (Continued from page 203.) 

 Platyptilia, Hb., Zell. 



The genus Platyptilia is a very natural one, the peculiar angulated 

 apex of the anterior wings, and the dark blotches on the anterior 

 wings are placed in almost precisely the same position, and are very 

 similar in shape. Some of the species are very closely allied and 

 difficult to distinguish except by experts. In Britain we have five 

 species, four of which form two closely allied pairs viz. : (1) ochrodactyla 

 and bcrtrami, and (2) gonodactyla and zettcrstedtii, together with the 

 isodactylus of Zeller. In the European area we find eleven species, some 

 of which, however, are doubtfully distinct ; in North America there 

 are a much larger number of species. Dr. Jordan mentions 15 in the 

 " Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. XVIII., p. 121. Only one 

 species, bertrami, is common both to Europe and America. Many of 

 the species are internal feeders, feeding in the flower-stalks and steins 

 of various Composites, but there are exceptions to this rule — P. cavdui, 

 a North American species, feeding gregariously, and P. orthocarpi, on 

 flowers of Orthocavpus, one of the ScvoplmlanacecB. The larvae of the two 

 broods of our British P. gonodactyla offer two very divergent forms in 



