TKPHROSIA BISTORTATA AND T. CRITPUSCULAUIA IN WALES. 33 



species I ever remember, but this was an exceptional year. My last 

 T. bistortata was taken on May 1st, and my last T. crepusridaria on 

 May 17th. The elevation at which the Swansea captures were made 

 is about 220 feet above the sea-level. The average winter temperature 

 of Swansea is 45'o'^, summer GO-6^, mean for the year 53-7'-' ; which 

 is warmer even than Penzance. Mr. Holland and myself also took 

 a number of melanic 2\ crepitscularia at Port Talbot in 1893. — 

 (Major) E. B. Robertson. 



The earliest date on which I have taken T. crcpuseularia hero is April 

 15th, 1893. This year was remarkable for a very early and hot 

 spring. On the 19th and 20th of that month I took 18 specimens, 

 of which 16 were black, and the two typical ones were not ochreous. 

 I captured more on April 25th, May 2nd, 5th, and 28th (37 speci- 

 mens in all), of which 35 were black, but I did not always take typical 

 specimens. In 1893, at a place about 15 miles from here, but ott'the 

 coal measures, and where the black form does not occur, I took, on 

 March 13th and 23rd, also on April 18th, five specimens which were 

 ochreous, and which I considered to be T. bistortata. In the same 

 place I took two not ochreous, on June 15th, which 1 consider to be 

 T. crcjntsrularia. In 1894 I took here five specimens (on April 15th, 

 28th, 28th, 29th and May 25th), of which the first three were black. 

 In 1895 I took three here (on May 13th and 21st) of which two were 

 black. [At Brandon, in Suffolk, in 1889, I took 70 specimens of 

 the non-ochreous form, on May 16th, 19th, and 25th.] I have never 

 searched particularly for these species, except for the black form in 

 May. I take the specimens chiefly sitting on beech trunks. The 

 wood in which I take them lies from about 50 to 200 feet above the 

 sea level, and near the sea. The climate is wet, but fairly mild. — 

 H. W. Vivian, B.A., F.E.S., Glanafon, South Wales. 



I incline strongly to the belief that the species are distinct, and 

 having collected where they were both plentiful (Chepstow), I noticed 

 that, in my case, I always took T. bistortata about a fortnight before 

 I came across T. crcpmcnlaria. The only black specimens I have seen 

 of either species were black T. bistortata. These came from Swansea. 

 I have never found either species double-brooded where I have been, 

 and while T. crcpuseularia undoubtedly varies, I have seen no variation 

 in T. bistortata. — Allan Nesbitt, Portishead. 



I went to live with Sir John Llewelyn, Bart., in 1867. At that 

 time he was very busy collecting, and, being very fond of entomology 

 myself, I selected some very fine typical females of T. bistortata 

 [rrcimsrularia), and fed up a number of them. Some emerged 

 typically coloured, others were much darker. These dark ones I inbred, 

 until I produced a black race. It took about five seasons to do this. 

 I had only one year's trial with 2\ crrpuscularia {biundularia). I found 

 a fine male T. crcpuseularia, very dark, with an almost white female. 

 She laid me a few ova, and they hatched out well, and when they 

 came out there was a fair proportion of dark ones ; some were almost 

 black with only one white line, most beautiful specimens. I have a 

 couple of large moth traps, and I get a few male specimens of the 

 two species now and again. The late broods are very much smaller 

 than the spring broods, but very beautiful. We are now 13 miles 

 from Ynisygerwn, where I first bred T. bistortata, and in not 

 nearly so good a place for mothing. I feed the larvio of both T. 



