STR^Y ENTOMOLOGICAL NOtES PROM EAST DEVON. 263 



In June, I .sought in vain in its usual haunts for Ilypena 

 albisirigalis ; not one was to be seen, but subsequently I took two a 

 little worn in the garden, one on red valerian, the other flying. Both 

 were close by a pond, and I have noticed that wherever I take this 

 insect, and it seems widely distributed though local, water is always 

 near at hand. I think the larva must feed on some plant requiring 

 much moisture. My son took a third, a $ nearly spent, which laid 

 two ova, but they were not fertile. At the same time I netted several 

 Boarmia repandata ab. conversaria, but they wore all worn, and 

 the ? s spent ; the aberration was more abundant than the type. My 

 son also took a number of larvae of Plati/ptilia cosmodactijla, feeding 

 on Staclij/s si/luatica in mid-August. This insect seems to occur over 

 a considerable area in East Devon. As usual, a large majority were 

 ichneumoned, 85 % ; it is surprising it does not get exterminated. 

 The few that pupated produced imagines during the last three weeks ; 

 most are dark olive-green and black on a pale ground colour, with 

 blackish hind- wings and large scale-tooth, but several have reddish- 

 brown as the predominant colour, and a smaller scale-tooth on the 

 hind-wings, though these are blackish, not brownish. I must confess 

 I have still an open mind as to the affinities of P. cosmodactyla and 

 /'. acanthodadijla. The Irish specimens seem to have mixed 

 characters, too. Again, I always find the larvae, both green and 

 reddish, feeding together on the same plant, having the head either black 

 or streaked and spotted with black only, a character supposed to differ- 

 entiate the two. How is it Meyrick does not mention the olive-green 

 colour of P. cosmodactyla, but calls it " greyish-ochreous striated with 

 black " ? A word to breeders of Anticlea herberata. Leaving home 

 for a short time, I sleeved some young larvae on an English barberry 

 bush, and others on one of the foreign varieties. On my return I found 

 the former a good size and the leaves a mere net-work, but the latter 

 were all dead and not a leaf had been nibbled. 



Angerona prunaria is an insect laying a large number of ova, and 

 pairing readily with its kind, but I have been unable to get ova from 

 the ab. sordiata paired with the type both ways. Out of four 

 pairings, only two of the $ s laid ova, and these were comparatively 

 few in number, and infertile. Have others noticed that the aberration 

 is infertile with the type, or is my experience accidental ? 



Sphinx convolunli is more abundant than usual this year. My 

 son took a perfect one on August 29th (in 1895, the first was taken on 

 August 20th, and in 189G, on August 31st). We were then away 

 for a fortnight, and on my return I took a second on September 

 15th, and since then have netted or seen one or more every evening. 

 Most are perfect, so the insect evidently keeps emerging in mid- 

 September. An enthusiastic young friend searched for them at dawn 

 one morning, with visions of many on the wing, but the Sj)hinx did 

 not put in an appearance, so his enthusiasm cooled down, and he con- 

 tented himself with evening watchings afterwards. 



The ova of the aberrations of Abraxas sylvata [ulmata), which 

 Mr. Hewett kindly sent me in 1897, produced some 70 imagines this 

 summer ; 10 were crippled, 57 were of the typical form, varying, as 

 usual, in the size and number of the bluish-grey markings, and only 

 three were aberrations. Two of these had a triangular bluish-grey 

 blotch, extending from base to hind margin, with apex pointing 



