Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/108

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1274
Insects.

about eleven o'clock, P. M., at some distance from the place which it generally frequents. — R.F. Logan ; Duddingstone, near Edinburgh, January 26th, 1846.

Psychophora trepidaria. — Schehallian Mountain was the only locality known for this moth : I believe it was first taken by Dr. Hooker : and on the 11th of July, nearly twenty years ago, Mr. Dale took a single specimen, and on the 28th of June, 1844, 1 took another. In my late excursion into Scotland I had the good fortune to discover another locality on a mountain five or six miles from Schehallian, and to take speci- mens on all the following dates, June 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 23rd, 25th, 30th, and July 8th. The best time for capturing these moths is when the sun shines a little, but the weather is otherwise cold ; they may then be seen running over the surface of the moss : when approached, they almost invariably ran in among moss, which was nearly of their own colour, and secreted themselves. The females were much more rare than the males. I obtained many eggs, but did not succeed in rearing any of them. The larva probably feeds on heath, or on the soft moss which grows in abundance on the hills inhabited by this insect, at an elevation of four thousand feet above the level of the sea. — Richard Weaver; 9, Vine Street, Birmingham.



Description of Perga scahra, an Insect belonging to the order Tenthredinites and the class Hymenoptera. Colour brown, the legs being paler than the body. The head is of nearly equal width with the prothorax and semi-porrected : the ocelli are placed in a triangle, the base of which is much longest, the anterior ocellus being but little in ad- vance of the other two ; every part of the head is rendered scabrous by irregular, deep, and often confluent punctures ; the vertex has moreover two vague longitudinal depres- sions, and between them a slight central longitudinal sulcus terminating at the ante- rior ocellus : the antennae are remarkably short even for the genus ; when extended laterally, they scarcely reach beyond the eyes. The prothorax is sculptured in the same manner as the head, and has various depressed spaces and elevated ridges, all of which have a longitudinal direction. The abdomen is glabrous, its extremity much recurved. The wings partake of the brown colour of the entire insect. The length varies from -5 to -6 of an inch. Inhabits Australia. The specimens from which my description is made were captured by Lieutenant I. M. R. Ince, R.N., and most obli- gingly handed me for examination by Mr. W. H. Ince, together with many other very interesting insects, which I find have been previously described. — Edward Newman.



Description of the British Species of Bees comprised in the Genera Colletes of Latreille and Macropis of Klug ; with observations on their Economy. By Frederick Smith, Esq., Curator to the Entomological Society.

The interesting economy of Colletes has attracted the attention of various authors, but their history as detailed by Reaumur is the most ample and correct, and is quoted at some length by Mr. Kirby in his