THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCEIL 
77 
tlie benefit of it, in wliich case the plants 
should be changed on removing the 
glass into the shade. Although they 
draw much of their nourishment from Uie 
young and tender leaves of a plant, they 
appear to give the preference to the 
blossoms when they can gain access to 
them. I find maple in flower very 
attractive, but less so than oaks, which 
are now absolutely swarming with several 
species. So comjvlele a metamorphosis 
takes place in some of the species that 
the colour and markings of an immature 
specimen are no guide whatever in deter- 
mining what the insect will be like when 
matured. To-day you may observe a 
specimen of an uniform bright rosy pink 
colour, body and wings and all; to- 
morrow it will be found to have thrown 
ofl' this livery and made its appearance 
in a sober suit of olive-green and black 
with just a reddish or yellowish tinge on 
the scutellum and a silvery patch at the 
tip of the wing.— S. Stone ; June 2. 
Bibio Marci. — Every one must have 
noticed, early in the month of May, a 
sluggish, black-looking fly that rejoices 
in the name of Bibio Marci, because it 
usually appears on the Continent on or 
about the day of Si. Mark. It lives in 
the winged state on the juices of flowers, 
and may not un frequently be seen at rest 
on the i'ruil trees of our gardens. In the 
larva state, says Macquart, it is furnished 
with rough hairs that give it something 
of the aspect of a hairy caterpillar. 
These hairs or bristles are given to it for 
the purposes of locomotion during its 
subterranean life, as it seems to be 
entirely destitute of feet. For nearly a 
year it has to seek its food in runs under- 
ground, and but for these processes loco- 
motion would be sadly impeded, if not 
almost impossible. During the winter it 
penetrates, like the mole, deeper into the 
soil, and is thus secure from the influence 
of frost and cold. At the close of March 
it assumes its pupal condition, whence it 
emerges early in May in this country, to 
live through its last sluggish stage of 
existence. Bibio Marci may be thus 
characterized : — Body shining black, with 
black hairs ; wings hyaline in the male, 
darker and more dusky in the female; 
antennae in both sexes perfoliate; eyes of 
the male large and prominent, — those of 
the female small, the head being singu- 
larly porrected. The female fly is the 
larger. — Petek lNCHBALO,<StorrAes Hall, 
near Huddersfield ; May 28. 
A Question for Hymenoplerists P — Is 
there not some mistake in this? I am 
no Hymenopterist, but do bees of any 
species lay their eggs indiscriminately 
over grass plots? May I not suggest 
that the blackbirds and thrushes are 
looking for the larvae or pupae of Pliyllo- 
perlha horlicola or Melolontha vulgaris P 
When I lived in the North, where P. hor- 
ticola was very abundant, so that they 
swarmed in the fields (generally the first 
week in June), the starlings, which are 
also abundant there, would congregate 
in the pastures, and feed almost entirely 
on the larvae of this insect. The grass 
in such places nearly always died, whether 
from being rooted up by the birds or de- 
stroyed by the larvae I cannot say. That 
the larva of M. vulgaris does sometimes 
infinite damage, vide Kirby and Spence’s 
‘ Entomology,’ cheap edition, p. 98. To 
the damage, whether direct or indirect, 
caused by that of Phylloperlka horlicola 
I myself can testify. — R. Tyrer, jun.. 
Hill House, Eye; May 28. 
EXCHANGE. 
Porthesia Chrysorriicea. — I have now 
sent off a supply to all applicants, and if 
any one has not received them I still 
have a few to spare. I have sent off up- 
wards of 2000, and out of over eighty 
applicants have only heard of the safe 
arrival of sixteen parcels. I intend 
leaving home on the 11th inst., and will 
