from which Walker's diagnosis was taken; but Mr. Dale subsequently distributed it and the following species under this name, and specimens from him, thus confused, are in the British Museum and in my own collection. In my Monograph in the Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. iii, the two species are apparently confused in the description, but the figure (pl. ii, fig. 8) represents that now under consideration. This species is probably widely distributed, but before any trustworthy ideas on this point can be arrived at, students of Psocide must re-examine their collections and state the results.*

2. P. SUBPUPILLATUS (alboguttatus, McLach., olim, part.; MeyerDür; Rostock; Kolbe; nec Dalman: 4-maculatus, Steph., part., sec. collect., nec Latr.).

Larger than the preceding species, the anterior wings expanding to 6-6 mm.

white spots at the base of the apical cellules and areas; there is a faintly indicated sub-apical series of darker spots, but they are not enclosed in white spots, and hence are not pupillate.

This is commonly known in collections as alboguttatus, and is probably spread over nearly the whole of Europe. It is partial to Pinus sylvestris, but may be beaten from almost any tree.

CECILIUS OBSOLETUS, Steph.

Kolbe recognises three species as confused under this name, all of which occur in Britain. Below I give a translation of his tabular diagnoses from Ent. Nachr., viii, p. 211.

a. Body greyish-yellow. Wings yellowish; posterior marginal cellule moderately large, broad, depressed. . obsoletus, Steph.

Body brownish-yellow. Wings brownish; posterior marginal cellule small, broad, scarcely depressed Burmeisteri, Brauer.

b. Body bright pale yellow to reddish-yellow; posterior marginal cellule very small, elliptical

perlatus, Kolbe.

I possess all three in my British collection, determined by Kolbe. All are closely allied, yet I think he may be justified in separating them; but they require to be studied in connection with their habits. There is some difficulty in deciding as to whether Stephens' single type

The rudimentary sub-costa is incorrectly delineated in the figure here given.

of obsoletus belongs to the species indicated by Kolbe under this name, or to Burmeisteri. I am not quite satisfied. Perlatus is the most distinct-looking of the three. These species frequent Pinus, Taxus, and Juniperus, especially the latter; they should be collected in numbers, and be carefully labelled with regard to locality, &c. Herr Kolbe is an enthusiastic young student of Psocide, and has done remarkably good work, but some of his deductions will prove ill-based in consequence of too minute subdivision.

ELIPSOCUS UNIPUNCTATUS, Müller.

British Entomologists should examine their specimens of this insect. Kolbe has separated it from Elipsocus under the generic term Mesopsocus, on certain small characters, the chief of which is that the "forked vein is sessile at the base of the fork. But Elipsocus as defined by him is headed by a species he terms E. laticeps, excessively close to M. unipunctatus, and differing chiefly in the "forked vein” being shortly petiolate at its base. Since Kolbe's monograph appeared in 1880 I have diligently collected unipunctatus, hoping to discover laticeps amongst them, but have not succeeded in so doing, although I note considerable variation in the neuration, the smallest exaggeration of which, in some examples, would produce laticeps (as defined by neuration only). The fact that the latter apparently does not occur in Britain is in favour of its distinctness; even if it prove to be distinct, there was small necessity for the genus Mesopsocus.

66

CLOTHILLA ANNULATA, Hagen.

This little "book-louse" was described by Hagen in the Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. ii, p. 122 (1865), from specimens found in boxes of European insects." It has since been found in several parts of Europe, and has been recorded from England in several continental publications, on my authority. But I do not think it has ever been formally noticed as British in a British publication. Seven or eight years ago I noticed three or four examples amongst the mass of small boxes, &c., &c., that adorns (?) the mantelshelf in my study here at Lewisham, but have not observed it since; and of its actual origin I know nothing. It is just one of those insects to which no native country can be assigned. Hagen has seen it in North America, and figures it in the Stettiner ent. Zeitung, 1882, pl. ii, fig. 7.

N.B.-Kolbe considers Clothilla, Westwood, only a synonym of Atropos, Leach, whereas, according to him, Atropos of authors of the present day should take the name Troctes, Burmeister. Leach's

characters for his Family Atropida (Edinburgh Encyc., vol. ix) were simply "tarsi three-jointed," and the type of his genus Atropos is "lignaria," with the citations "Termes pulsatorium, L.," and "Termes lignarium, De Geer." On this evidence I am inclined to think Kolbe may be justified in the view he has taken, but such a change is exceedingly inconvenient. The insect described by De Geer and Linné is certainly that which we now term "Clothilla pulsatoria."

of Burmeister is also certainly identical with what we term Atropos. I believe Kolbe's views will have to be adopted. ·

Lewisham, London :

December, 1882.

Notes on certain captures during the past season in the Forest of Dean.—Out of fifteen successive seasons I cannot recall one in which the months of May, June and July yielded so small a harvest to the working Lepidopterist. And this is the more surprising, because, in the preceding year, examples of the commoner species that frequent this district were easily obtainable, and most of them abundant. But although larvæ were then so numerous here, observations made at the time led me not to expect more than a normal number of imagos from the devouring host, for destroyers of one kind or other were as ubiquitous as their victims, and the traces of their handiwork quite as apparent. Nevertheless, certain early spring moths proved to be plentiful, so that, when noticing frequently on the oak trunks during February, March, and the first fortnight of April, N. hispidaria, P. pilosaria, H. progemmaria, H. leucophæaria, I little thought that, at the close of 1882, my list of captured Lepidoptera would turn out to be such a small one. This, however, is the case. Since mid-April the dearth of butterflies and moths has been, at least, as marked in this part as in those other portions of our islands from which complaints on the subject have found their way into the Magazine, so that there has been little or no inducement to carry the usual paraphernalia of a Lepidopterist during one's rambles in the woodland. To be sure, just before and after that date, A. prodromaria and C. ridens were now and then met with, after, in each case, a most diligent search; but, then, these captures are miserably insignificant if placed side by side with those made at corresponding dates in 1881, when one evening, after two hours' work, a collector returned home with thirty picked specimens of A. prodromaria, and, for want of space, left quite double that number on the moss, where they had just attained their full development. In fact, I have not used the net throughout the season, and this not through inability or indisposition, but because the weather was felt to be of such a kind, as to make it exceedingly probable that no adequate return would be gained by that method of collecting. To take the insects mentioned above a few pill boxes sufficed. From the 1st May onwards my total captures in the order do not amount to double figures, as it is little use (if any) to take of the commonest species more than enough for one's own series. Scanty as this number is, it includes an insect whose occurrence may be worth recording, namely, a very fine example of A. alni on the afternoon of

20th June. This insect is a conspicuous object when at rest, owing to the sharp contrast presented by the two principal hues of its coloration when viewed with a moss-grown trunk as the background, and to this peculiarity the present capture is doubtless due, and perhaps the rarity of the insect, as birds would not be likely to pass over so conspicuous a delicacy. Two facts bearing upon the Lepidoptera, and I shall have finished with the Order, as far as these notes are concerned. The first relates to the supposed complete absence of wings in the female P. pilosaria. On comparing series of the female N. hispidaria and P. pilosaria, it will be found that the stumps of wings are as well developed in the latter as in the former in (at any rate) most cases, and in all that I have examined (a good number) wing-scales could be plainly detected on the rudimentary appendages by the aid of a good lens.

As these spider-like insects possess so much in common, the coloration even being very similar in some instances, a difficulty might occasionally occur in their separation. The difference in the clothing of the tibiæ, however, as pointed out in "The Manual," being of constant character is conclusive, and shows at once to which of the two insects any one specimen must be referred. It seems strange that error should have crept in with respect to so generally distributed a species as P. pilosaria, and it at any rate fosters the suspicion that some other accepted facts in Natural History, which have been ably used to support theories, which go quite against the grain with the majority, may be found, on closer examination, to be fictitious.

The second fact which this season has helped to establish is the ability of N. chaonia to remain for two years in the pupa stage. Two males of this insect appeared in the breeding cage, one on the 21st March, and the other on the 8th April, from larvæ which spun up in 1880.

Turning now from that Order of insects which engrosses the attention of the majority of Entomologists to one equally, if not more, deserving of study, and certainly far more interesting from an anatomical or structural point of view-the Coleoptera, most of the species previously recorded from here have again occurred, and that too pretty freely, those that were taken in the greatest quantity being Homalium planum, Silpha 4-punctata, Aphodius conspurcatus, and A. fœtidus. One evening in May Calosoma inquisitor was to be counted in scores ascending the trunks, and, on standing still in the forest solitude, a busy rustling was audible, caused (as fancy suggests) by a multitude of these beetles crawling over the fallen and decaying leaves of the past autumn, as the mature specimens sped on their way from the pupa chamber to a neighbouring tree. On the following day, at the same time, there were but one or two to be seen so engaged, from which it may be taken as almost certain that the emergence of the bulk of this species took place in a few hours, whereas, usually it may extend over several days. Such a number of examples were secured in the preceding season that not more than two dozen were taken, although, from the arboreal habits of the insect, it is but fair to conclude, that on any bright day in June hundreds might easily have been bottled by jarring the boughs and catching the results in an inverted umbrella, at all events, in that portion of the forest, for the insect is one of local habit. As hitherto unobserved in the district, I have to record the occurrence of Coryphium angusticolle under fir bark, Lathrobium longulum by stone-turning, Molorchus umbellatarum on a window curtain, Chrysomela didymata (hitherto scarce here) freely on Hypericum in September,

not far from the spot where Chrysomela menthastri may be picked off the heads of Mentha, and Bledius subterraneus extracted from the sandy soil beneath, if one has any eyes left for insects when surrounded by the enchanting scenery of the banks of the Wye between Monmouth and Symond's Yat.-A. E. HODGSON, Coleford: December 4th, 1882.

Captures at Deal.—In the early part of August last I had two or three days' collecting at the above mentioned watering place. Among the insects taken may be enumerated Licinus depressus and L. silphoides, Xantholinus tricolor, Syncalypta hirsuta, Hypera fasciculata, and a fair number of Dianthæciæ larvæ from Silene maritima and S. inflata. Along the cliffs between Walmer and St. Margaret's Lycana Corydon made good show, being the only butterfly that one could not fail to notice and admire.-ID.

Description of the larva of Pterophorus pentadactylus.—On the 4th of July of last year, I received eggs of this species from Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher, deposited by a moth he had taken at Worthing. Five days later they hatched, and the newlyemerged larvæ were white, and clothed with long white hairs. They fed for a short time on convolvulus, but hibernated early, when still very small. In April, they recommenced feeding, but by the 15th, were only a little over a quarter of an inch in length. From that time they grew rapidly, and, by the 5th of May, the largest was nearly full-grown.

Length, nearly three quarters of an inch, and of average build. Head polished, it has the lobes rounded, and is a little narrower than the second segment. Body cylindrical, and fairly uniform, tapering only a very little towards the extremities. Segmental divisions clearly defined, the tubercles prominent, and from each of them springs a tuft of moderately stiff hairs: in the tuft of hairs from the tubercles on segments 2, 3, 4, 12, and 13, is a single hair, much longer than the rest, which stands out very conspicuously. Skin soft and smooth, but only very slightly glossy. Ground-colour of a median shade of dark green, exactly the colour, indeed, of the convolvulus leaf, on which it feeds. On the dorsal area, however, the ground-colour only appears as a large lozenge-shaped mark on each segment, except the ninth, the remaining space on each segment, and the whole of the ninth segment, being filled with bright lemon-yellow. The darker green alimentary canal shews through as the dorsal line; there are no perceptible dorsal lines, but there are long and continuous whitish streaks along the posterior half of the spiracular region. Head bright yellowish-brown. the mandibles reddish-brown, and the ocelli black and distinct. Tubercles intensely black, the hairs greyish. The imago from this larva was out on the 31st of May.-GEO. T. PORRITT, Huddersfield: December 9th, 1882.

Note on Crambus furcatellus.-About the middle of June we went to one of our old resorts in the Highlands. The first ten days rain, rain, then came a fine day and I ascended a hill nearly 2000 feet high. On the way I looked in on the Scopula decrepitalis haunt, and took three, and one Asthena luteata, they were almost the only insects to be seen in the place, every thing being in a great state of soak. Higher up I took one Antithesia Staintoniana, the utter absence of insect life on most promising ground being quite remarkable. About 1000 feet up and flying over a beautiful