crossed by others at right angles: but under a very high power these cross fibres are no longer seen, and each fibre appears to be composed of a cylinder, so formed as to present more or less transparent markings at regular distances from each other, giving a transversely striated appearance. These striæ are apparently produced by an analogous method to those on the primary fasciculus of muscle, and there is but little doubt of the contractile nature of this arrangement, inasmuch as it assists in the opening of the shell when the ligament is behind the hinge, which otherwise could never be effected. Mr. Quekett concluded with various observations on the mode of action of these different structures, and on the astonishing power exhibited by the peculiar arrangement of the structure of the external ligament in opening valves of immense weight, as in Chama Gigas, whose shells frequently weigh as much as one hundred weight.-J. W.

6

Notice of A Systematic Catalogue of British Land and Fresh-water Shells; for labelling Collections, &c.: containing all the Species hitherto discovered in Great Britain and Ireland.' Lon don: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Stationers' Hall Court. York: John L. Linney.

1844.

WE beg to recommend this useful little catalogue to those who are interested in our native shells: its objects and plan will be best explained by quoting the author's preface.

“A systematic list of British Land and Fresh-water Shells for the purpose of labelling collections, or serving as a medium by which collectors may show their desiderata, has been long needed; and although the following catalogue may be objected to by many, as not containing the Marine Shells, it will, it is hoped, prove useful to those who are engaged in the study of this beautiful branch of our British Conchology. "The arrangement of the genera and species, as well as the nomenclature, is with some exceptions the same as that adopted in Mr. Gray's edition of Turton's Manual.' A short list is added of those shells which have been admitted on insufficient grounds, or which are supposed to be varieties of other species. Limneus lineatus of Bean, and L. acutus of Jeffreys, have been found about Scarborough, by Mr. Bean, whose indefatigable researches in Natural History are so well known.

"We have heard of one specimen of Achatina octona being taken in Ireland, but think its existence as a British species requires further proof.

"Some of the numerous varieties of Anodon Cygneus, should, it is thought, be more justly regarded as species; and we believe this class would amply repay careful investigation."

Notes on the habits of Thyridopteryx Ephemeræformis, (Stephens). By P. H. GOSSE, Esq.

THE following notes on the habits of an American Lepidopterous insect may be deemed not uninteresting. On the 6th of September,

1838, at Alabama, U.S., I found upon an apple-tree many singularlooking spindle-shaped cases or cocoons, made of a strong tough silk of a dirty white hue. The extremities were tapered to a point; the length was from one and a half to two inches; the upper end terminated in a silken band fastened tightly round a twig, from which the case was suspended. The surface was thickly studded with pieces of the twigs from one-third to two-thirds of an inch long, attached longitudinally, but somewhat slightly: these were most numerous on the upper part. I made an incision in the silk, and found within a smooth plump caterpillar, dull reddish brown, tapering at the extremities, the head and first three segments horny and polished, white with black spots. I threw the cases into a box, and the next day examined one or two more, and found that some contained pupæ. In a large cocoon there was a dark brown pupa, much elongated, with no vestige of wings in the usual place, the head, legs and antennæ very small, for all these members can be traced in a Lepidopterous pupa as in the imago: in ano

ther was a pupa much smaller, which had wings of middling size, and short thick antennæ. I had reason to think that this cocoon was used by the caterpillar as a shelter or defence, while projecting the three polished segments of its body to eat, in the manner of a Phryganea; for on suddenly opening the box I saw one draw his head within the cocoon at the lower end, vanishing just as I looked at him. This induced me, by making a hole near the top of the cocoon, and touching the larva behind, to drive him clean out, as I have done

a Phryganea, at the lower end, which is tubular and open. But soon after I found by actual observation that the manners of the larva had the supposed resemblance to those of the Trichoptera; for at night I saw that the caterpillar crawled about the leaves, dragging the tent after him as far as it would allow, the first three segments being projected. I could not but admire the circumstance that this resemblance between insects of very different orders was still more complete

in the bits of stick which were stuck about the case so profusely, and of which I could not discover the use. I at first thought they might have been the living twigs to which the web was first fastened as a stay until it attained form, and that they had afterwards been cut off by the caterpillar, to free the case when finished: but if so, there would surely have been but two or three, instead of a dozen or two. Perhaps they were intended to make it more rough-looking and less observable. Those cases which I had cut partly open were soon accurately closed nearly as tight and strong as ever, by an internal coat of silk over the incision.

On the evening of the 5th of October I was surprised at seeing in my box a little moth, which was fluttering his wings so swiftly as to render them almost invisible. On his becoming still, I observed that the wings were almost totally destitute of scales, and consequently transparent: the posterior pair very minute. On the posterior wings there was a very narrow band on the inner margin, which was clothed with black scales, and a few were sparingly scattered in an undefined stripe that ran down the anterior wings. The head, thorax and abdomen, which were somewhat robust, were thickly clothed with black down; the antennæ doubly pectinate, curled and very short. The moth measured half an inch in length and an inch in spread of wing. It flew but a very few inches at a time, but constantly (or nearly so) vibrated its wings. When these organs were not in motion they were deflexed, and the abdomen was turned up. It was a male, and had proceeded from one of the smaller cases, at the mouth of which the pupa-skin was left, protruding about two-thirds of its length. Another pupa had just begun to make its head visible from the mouth of another cocoon. I then opened some of the larger female cocoons, but in most of them the pupa were filled with a soft satiny dust, of a buffbrown colour. In one cocoon I found the female evolved from the pupa; the exuviæ of which were likewise filled with this downy dust. The perfected female had little of the form of a moth, but appeared like a transparent bag of soft eggs; the anterior parts were dark brown and the limbs were very minute, flabby and almost undistinguishable, looking nearly decomposed. No wings were to be seen, and there was not a vestige of down upon the body, except two or three tufts near the tail, which resembled that left in the pupa-skin. I should have supposed that it was dead, but that at intervals there were certain motions which indicated the possession of vitality. "Take it for all in all," larva, pupa and imago, this was the most singular moth that ever it was my fortune to make acquaintance with. The Oiketi

cus in Mr. Kirby's collection at the Entomological Society's house, is much like my male, but it is larger and has clothed wings.

P. H. GOSSE.

Kentish Town, February 28, 1844.

I Note on the capture of Colias Edusa at Yarmouth. In the month of June, 1839, took near Yarmouth a faded female; and in the autumn of the same year, about a dozen males of Colias Edusa. These are the only times I have met with the insect. On the 14th of last October a single specimen was seen in a turnip-field in the vicinity of this city.—Henry F. Farr; Lower Close, Norwich, March 22, 1844.

Note on rearing the Death's-head Hawk-moth. Seeing in The Zoologist' that there was a question about the breeding of the death's-head Sphinx (Acherontia Atropos, Zool. 398 and 473), I will give you the manner in which I have hardly ever failed. When the pupa has been buried a few days, I take it out, and place it in moist, friable, vegetable mould, about an inch below the surface, and moisten it every two days with a little luke-warm water.-W. P. Heathcote; Commoners' College, Winchester, February 29, 1844.

Last

Note on the capture of Male Emperor Moths by means of a Female. I take the liberty of sending you the following account of the capture of male moths by means of an impregnated female, for insertion in your most interesting magazine, 'The Zoologist.' I believe the fact that female insects when unimpregnated have the power of attracting the male, in some unknown manner, is well authenticated; but perhaps it is not so commonly understood, that they will do so even after impregnation. year, having secured a fine female of the Emperor moth (Saturnia Pavonia-minor) on sugar, and supposing that possibly it might not be impregnated, and consequently that I might by means of it secure some males, of which I was in want, I fastened it in a well secured gauze box, and exposed it in the open air. In an hour's time three males approached and endeavoured to enter the box, all of which I caught almost immediately. Being then satisfied with my captures, I took the female in doors, and shut her under a tumbler while I went in search of some sulphur to destroy her. When I came back, to my great astonishment I found that she had laid between sixty and seventy eggs, which I preserved, not at all thinking they would be productive, as I thought the fact of her having attracted the males sufficiently proved that she was unimpregnated. However, the eggs all hatched. I hope you will insert this in The Zoologist,' as perhaps some one may explain it.-Id.

Note on the Genus Cerura. The number of British species of the genus Cerura appears to be imperfectly known, the comparatively few specimens that have been taken varying so much that Mr. Stephens enumerates nine species, while others think that there are but three or four. The scarcity of specimens is, I think, to be attributed chiefly to the habits of the genus rendering them difficult to be discovered in their preparatory stages. In the larva state they have been seldom found, C. vinula excepted; and in the pupa form still more rarely, from the manner in which the cocoons are formed in the bark of the trees, on the leaves of which the larvæ have fed. During the past winter I and some friends have found several pupa by diligently searching the trunks of various species of poplar, the greater number being on the "white" and "Lombardy." It is very curious to see how well they hide themselves;

some are buried in the smooth bark, the outside of the cot being quite level therewith, and nothing to indicate their presence; others are sunk in fissures and crevices, their coverings being so nearly of the colour of the bark that they are scarcely discernible; and others again are perched on the tops of rugged excrescences of the bark. In any situation they are most difficult to discover, and require truly entomological eyes; but believing that more specimens are likely to be obtained this way than any other, and that the comparison of a number of them collected in different localities, and of the notes that should be made, of food or peculiarity of habit, will be the best means of clearing up the obscurity that now rests on this interesting genus, I wish to call attention thereto while yet the season admits of search. -J. W Douglas; 6, Grenville Terrace, Coburg Road, Kent Road, March 18, 1844.

SO.

Notes on the British Humble-Bees, (Bombus of authors). By FREDERICK SMITH, Esq., Curator to the Entomological Society. In a former paper of mine (Zool. 408), I expressed my intention of endeavouring to point out the number of species of the genera Psithyrus of St. Fargeau, and Bombus of Latreille, hitherto discovered . in Great Britain, as far as my own experience in collecting, and an examination of the best London collections, would enable me to do And perhaps I cannot do better, in the first place, than quote a few words from the preface of their great monographer, the Rev. W. Kirby; who observes - "he does not presume to affirm that he has fallen into no mistakes, for in two of his subdivisions of genuine Apes [alluding to the genera Nomada and Bombus] he fears he has not been so successful, in uniting the sexes, as in the other families; and in general, where the males and females differ very materially, as they occasionally do both in colour and form, he has probably, in several instances, been led to regard them as distinct species." Since these remarks were written, the observations of entomologists have proved their truth; and indeed it could scarcely be otherwise, when we consider the state of the group previous to the publication of Mr. Kirby's admirable work. Greatly indeed are we indebted to that illustrious author, for the state of comparative perfection to which he reduced the genus, and placed the results of his labours before us. He has, indeed, left little for succeeding observers to do, excepting, as far as their observations may enable them, to give to some individuals their legitimate partners, to describe the species not then discovered, and to correct such errors as were committed solely for the want of such information as time and subsequent discoveries now enable us to rectify. Numberless indeed are the charges against writers of the present day, of a love of unnecessarily multiplying species; but let it be