ii8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



The great point of distinction between Eiipithecia castigata and E. lariciata 

 is the different shape of the fore-wings, and, consequently, of the strigce upon 

 them. E. dodonceata is something like abbrez'iata^ but smaller and more 

 sharply marked, and its fore-wings are more pointed. 



Serico7-is urticana is very partial to Vacciniiwi here, feeding on it in plenty. 



Is not the small form of Scricoris cespitana the 9 ? 



Mixodia pahistrana. — Wilkinson's knowledge of this was derived evidently 

 from some one who had taken it in the Black Wood of Rannoch. It is cer- 

 tainly common there among fir-trees, but only because the tall heather and 

 Vaccinhim among which it flies grow under them. 



Diplodoma inarginepunctella feeds on the powdery green lichen at the foot 

 ""of old palings and on tree-trunks, but not on fungi, I believe. It eats dead 

 insects willingly. 



Tinea semifulvella is said to have been reared from birds' nests, so it pro- 

 bably feeds on hair or feathers. I have sometimes brought home old nests of 

 the chaffinch and reared plenty of Tinea lapella from them, and think that in 

 a suitable locality semifulvella might be obtained. 



It is difficult to find the larva of Dep7'essaria ptilcherimella at work, but it 

 is easily obtained by sweeping. 



I think that CEcophora fuscescens feeds as a larva on dry vegetable refuse. 

 I once beat it in clouds out of old heather-thatch, and found it always pretty 

 common among thatch of that description. 



I once found larvae and moths of Argyresthia dilutella in a small bushy 

 juniper growing singly in a garden. I never saw it in the ordinary tall 

 junipers. The moth skulks in the middle of the busli, and is hard to disturb. 

 The larva feeds in the young shoots. — Chas. G. Barrett, Pembroke, May 

 i8, 1879. 



Id. — I find I omitted in my notice of Eupicilia atricapitana to record a 

 specimen which I took on May 30, 1875. Ragwort and Centaurea nigra were 

 the prominent plants. As a curiosity I append a note of my captures on that 

 day : Lyccsna alsns, Notodonta camelina, Plusia chrysitis, Hepialns lupidinus^ 

 Caradrina ctibicidaris, Hadena glanca, Cidaria cojylata, Halonota sadulana, 

 Plutella criiciferarumy P. porrectella, Mixodia Schulziana, Micropteryx allion- 

 ella, Tinea bisontella, Gelechia acuminatella^ Tinea lapella, Lobophora hexap- 

 terata, Emmelesia alb?ilata, Capua ochraceana, S'Mammerdaviia griseocapitella, 

 Dicj'orampha hcrbosana, Sec. — rather a contrast to the meagre list of May 30, 

 1879. To-day (June 3, 1879) I took another specimen of E//p. atricapitana. 

 The only other insects I noticed on the same ground on which I observed 

 quite one half of the above list in 1875, were Halonota cirsiana, Micj-opteryx 

 sid>p7irpurella, and Polyommatus Phlceas. This is, therefore, a backward 

 season, but I see that both Wilkinson and Mr Slainton give only July and 

 August for the time of the appearance of the perfect insect. — Tiios. MON- 

 CREIFKE, Moncrciffe, Bridge of Earn. 



Food-plant of Gelechia acuminatella. — Last summer I found in Glen Tilt 

 some small larvte eating the leaves of the Melancholy Tliistle [Canlnns 

 heterop/iyllus), and have this spring reared Gelechia acuminatella from 

 them. — F. Buchanan White. 



