80 A. E. GIBBS NOTES ON LEPIDOPTEUA 



other plants. Mr. Heaton has several times found the larvae of 

 this species on the hanks of the canal, feeding on Impatiens fulva, 

 but he says that he has not succeeded in rearing them, as he could 

 not get the food home without withering, and they would not eat 

 a substitute. 



One of the most remarkable features of the past season has been 

 the great abundance of the humming-bird hawk -moth (^Macroglossa 

 stellatarum) . One bright day, I think in July, I noticed a number 

 of people assembled in front of Mr. F. Beal's office in St. Peter's 

 Street, St. Albans, and I found that their attention had been 

 attracted by these insects flying about the jasmine in front of the 

 house. Mr. Beal's clerk told me that he had seen a great many of 

 them hovering round the flowers. Mr. Henry Lewis had a re- 

 markable experience with this insect. He was standing in 

 Sparrowswick AVood, wearing some honeysuckle in his coat, when 

 one of these moths hovered before it and extracted the honey. It 

 flew away, but with remarkable persistency came back again to 

 suck the sweet nectar from the flower. This was in September. 

 Mr. Pilbrow says that at the harvest festival held in the Church at 

 Colney Heath, dozens of these insects were attracted by the floral 

 decorations, and their humming was very noticeable. Mr. Latch- 

 more reports that this moth "has been seen everywhere right 

 through the summer until the cold weather." He took several at 

 the windows inside his house, and " observed them in numbers in 

 the garden in the hot sunshine, resting on a brick wall or wooden 

 fence." Miss Ormerod noticed the moth flying at Torrington 

 House up to October 14th. In the autumn Mr. Dymond observed 

 single specimens of this insect flying swiftly over the geranium 

 beds in his garden at Forney House, East Barnet. Mr. Bowyer 

 writes from Haileybury : ^'' Macroglossa stellatarum was common, 

 though not strikingly so. I have never seen the larvse here. On 

 the cliffs near Dover it occurs on both Galium verum and G. molhtgo, 

 preferring the former." Mr. E. Hartert, curator of the Zoological 

 Museum, Tring, says that M. stellatarum was not rare in that 

 district. Several were taken on the flowers in the yard behind 

 the Museum, and he saw a few in his own garden, Mr. Hartert 

 informs me that in Germany it is nowhere rare, although never 

 common. Mr. Heaton reports the capture of several specimens 

 this year, and also in 1888. 



Mr. Pilbrow netted a fine specimen of the hornet clear-wing 

 moth {Trochilium apiforme) at Colney Heath, Messrs. Latchmore 

 and Gatward inform me that this moth is common at Hitchin, but 

 exceedingly difficult to capture in the larva state. They noticed 

 on some aspen-trees perforated by this larva places where some 

 birds (probably nuthatches) had dug several pupse out of the bark. 

 The chrysalis may be found in the spring near the outside of its 

 burrow. 



OTHER MOTHS. 



Messrs. Latchmore and Gatward record the occurrence of the 

 green forester (/wo statices) at Lilley Hoo. Mr. Heaton failed 



