82 A. E. GIBBS— NOTES ON LEPIDOPTEEA 



centipedes, which I at once recognized as the little creature I 

 have often taken on a footpath on a humid evening in summer." 



Mr. Pilbrow has failed to take the centre-barred sallow ( Cirrhoedia 

 xerampelina') this year. The specimens he has secured hitherto 

 were taken on or near ash-trees, and had not long emerged. He 

 finds that the best time to look for them is between noon and early 

 evening. The fact that they were taken on ash-trees seems to 

 indicate that the larva might be worth searching for. It is an 

 ash-feeder. This is not a common insect with us, though I have 

 taken it at light at St. Albans, and Mr. Griffith records it from 

 Sandridgc. 



The shark-moth ( Cucullia umlratica) is recorded from East 

 Barnct by Colonel Gillum, and Mr. Pilbrow reports its capture 

 on a fence at Colney Heath in the bright sunshine. 



A specimen of the emperor-moth {Satiirnia pavonia) was also 

 taken in daylight on a fence by Mr. Pilbrow, it apparently having 

 jiist emerged, and he has taken Acronyda ligustri ("?), Cossus ligni- 

 perda, and Smermitlms tilm in the same way. <S» pavonia is one 

 of the moths of which the males may be taken by what is known 

 as " assembling." The female should be put in a muslin-covered 

 box, and if there are any males in the neighbourhood they are 

 attracted to the spot. Mr. Lewis took a moth in that way last 

 spring. 



Mr. A. Sainsbury Yerey, of Heronsgate, E-ickmansworth, writes 

 that he took a specimen of the bird's-wing moth [Dipterygia 

 scahriuscida) at that place. He has favoured me with the following 

 notes with regard to the larvse of this moth : " Some years ago, 

 when residing at Barnes, I was one day in August collecting the 

 caterpillars of Ch(£roca)iipa porcellus, when I found some brownish 

 larvse, with somewhat darker and also white stripes running along 

 their bodies, feeding upon a species of coarse rank grass, which 

 was growing with the Galium saxatile, npon which, together with 

 G. verum, C. porcellus feeds. These I took home, when they 

 quickly span-up in loose cocoons under some dead leaves on the 

 surface of the earth in the rearing-cage, and, emerging in the 

 following June, proved to be the Dipferggia pinastri of Newman. 

 I see that Is^ewman gives ' various species of docks ' as the food- 

 plants, but all the caterpillars I found were on the coarse grass, 

 although, as they so very soon changed to pupte, I cannot actually 

 say that they were feeding upon it." 



Among the insects in Colonel Gillum' s collection may be mentioned 

 the lappet-moth {Laniocampa quercifolia), which was taken at East 

 Barnet. It was caught by one of the boys in the Farm Home 

 and given to Colonel Gilhmi. There are four other Hertfordshire 

 records for this moth. A full accoimt of L. quercifolia and its 

 habits, together with life-like figures of the larva and perfect insect, 

 appear in Miss Ormerod's ' Report of Observations of Injurious 

 Insects for 1893.' 



Mr. Cutts reports that Letirania comma and L. pallens were 

 plentiful in the autumn, but he did not see any earlier in the 



