XXVTI. 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA OBSERVED IN THE NEIGHBOUEIIOOD 

 OF WATFORD IN THE YEAR 1896. 



By S. H. Spenceb, Jun. 



Read at Watford, 30th April, 1897. 



A LARGE number of motlis visited the sallow-bloom, among which 

 were some good specimens of Tmiiocampa populeti and miniosa. 

 Sugaring during the year yielded but poor results. At ivy-bloom 

 a few moths were taken, but owing to the very wet autumn the 

 bloom was soon destroyed. 



At light many moths made their appearance, but not in such 

 large numbers as in the pre\-ious year. While collecting at dusk 

 in the garden of "Elmcote," Watford, Mr Arthur Cottam had the 

 good fortune to capture a specimen of that recently-found moth, 

 Plusia Dioneta, and we have together prepared the following note 

 on the appearance of the above species in England : — 



'■'■ Plusia moneta was first taken in Great Britain on 25th 

 June, 1890, by a schoolboy at Dover, as it was hovering over 

 a Delphinium blossom. In recording this capture Mr. Barrett 

 remarks ('Entomologists' Monthly Magazine,' vol. xxvi, p. 255) 

 that it is a rather curious fact, but one well established, that those 

 seasons which are remarkable for unfavourable weather, and con- 

 sequent scarcity of insects, are also noticeable for the unexpected 

 occurrence of novelties or rarities. On the night of the 2nd July 

 in the same year another was taken, by Mr. W. Holland, flying 

 about a gas-lamp at a railway station near Beading. And in 

 August one was taken at Cambridge, by Mr. J. C. Rickard, at rest 

 just outside Downing College grounds. 



"In 1891 a specimen was taken at Dover on the 20th September, 

 evidently one of the second brood. In 1893, on about the lOth 

 Jialy, a specimen was taken at the flowers of Nicoiiana affinis at 

 Tonbridge. In 1894 a specimen was taken at Sprowston, near 

 Norwich, on 26th June, by Mr. B. Tillett, hovering over a large 

 rose-bush, at about 9.-30 p.m., and another at Eastbourne, on the 

 13th July, by Mr. Saunders, flying at privet-bloom in College 

 Road. In 1895 Mr. Tillett took another specimen at Sprowston 

 on the 26th June, at sugar, where one had been taken by his brother 

 the previous year. In the same year two were taken at Harrow 

 Weald, Middlesex, by Mr. Peers, the son of the Vicar, but he did 

 not record the captures, and I am not able to give the dates. 



"The first specimen taken in Hertfordshire was captured by 

 Mr. Arthur Cottam in Watford, on the 19th June, 1896. He was 

 catching the moths that came to a large clump of honeysuckle 

 (then in full flower) in the garden of 'Elmcote,' with the late 

 \\v. Clarence E. Fry, who then resided there. It was nearly ten 

 o'clock when the insect was taken, and although Mr. Cottam, from 

 its shape when he held his net against the sky, thought it was 



