s 
^^ [JuneJI 
place in Scotland. Coleopterisfcs probably often come across these insects ; so ifi 
they could find room for them in their laurel-bottles, and, at the end of thei 
season, send them to me, I should be very grateful.-F. Buchanan White Perthjl 
May 10th, 1869. 
Abundance in 1868 of the winged form of Velia cwrens.-Of this insect soi 
common on running water, I had for many years sought in vain for a winged-: 
individual ; the hundreds I had taken for examination were all apterous, and I had 3 
known only of two or three winged examples being found over a wide area within,, 
the period. I was therefore greatly pleased when, in April last year, one of my ; 
boys caught, on one of our streams, a fully developed example, and, I having incited 1 
him to further search, he soon brought 20 or 30, and above 100 were taken in April 
and May by others. What was the cause of the acquisition of wings by so many 
individuals? There was nothing exceptional in the weather of 1867 to favour 
development-the insects appeared before the heat of 1868-and there have been 
no winged ones since, as might have been expected if heat influences full develop- 
ment j so I apprehend the cause must be sought in other than external circum- 
stances. At present, and perhaps for ever, if this be true, the cause of such 
irregular development must be hypothetical. In Nature there is always a reserve 
of power-a capability of replenishing exhausted force and renewing action in one 
way or another. In insects we see this, for instance, in undeveloped bees and 
ants, the stage to which the ordinary workers attain being sufficient for the race ; 
but if occasion arrive which requires a different condition of life, development is 
not arrested in so many individuals as usual-the reserve is brought forward. So 
it may be as to the development of wings in Velia-and doubtless in other insects— 
that the law of Infinite Wisdom, under which the creatures ordinarily exist without 
wings, has latent power for the production of these members when they are to 
become necessary for the welfare of the race, either in removing the individuals to 
better localities, or in taking them to mingle with other stocks and so prevent 
deterioration. I say when the wings are to become necessary, for they must be 
prepared in the penultimate state, and the creatures can have no prescience or will 
of their own in providing for their unknown future.— J. W. Douglas, Lee : Uth 
April, 1869. 
Hints for finding eggs and larvce of Lycmna Arion.~Mj observations on the 
habits of the larva3 of Chrosis euphorbiana seem to have contributed to finding that 
species in England. Perhaps a suggestion with reference to Lycc^na Arion may 
enable English entomologists to be the first to unravel the Natural History of the 
" Large Blue," rare as it is with them. 
I may mention, in the first place, that I was astonished to find that in the 
mountainous parts of Silesia this species had difi-erent haunts from those which I 
hitherto observed it to frequent in the plains ; for, when at Salzbrunn, in 1838, 1 saw 
It plentifully in the moist open meadows at the foot of Mount Hochwald, whereas 
near Glogau, as well as at Frankfort and Meseritz, it frequents dry fir-forests, on the 
most barren and sandy ground. My astonishment would probably have been less 
had I been then acquainted with the food-plant of Lyca^na Arion, for I well recol- 
lect that in those moist meadows Thymus serpyllum was very abundant. 
