LEPIDOPTEEA OBSERVED IN 1894. 189 



speaking, the large and beautiful insects arc so scarce that they 

 miglit be left uninjured with little fear of consequences," and all 

 naturalists, I am sure, will thank her for speaking a word in favour 

 of such a comparatively-rare and therefore harmless species. 



Messrs. Latehmore and Gatward report that the peacock butterfly 

 ( Vanessa To) was abundant at Hitchin, both in the larval and 

 perfect state, and that the painted lady ( F. cardui) was observed 

 on the wing in several places. The red admiral ( V. atalanta) 

 was plentiful in both the larva and the pupa state, and was very 

 common, even through the cold days of October, feeding in the 

 rolled-up leaves of the nettle. Colias edusa is not reported as 

 having been observed in 1894. 



Moths. 



Very few observers have sent notes to me with regard to the 

 hawk-moths. My correspondents at Hitchin, Messrs. Latehmore 

 and Gatward, report that the poplar, lime, and eyed hawk-moths 

 were the species principally noticed by them at Hitchin, the 

 first-named insect being very abundant. Mr. E.. W. Bowyer, of 

 Haileybury, reports that the elephant hawk-moth {^Chmrocampa 

 elpenor) came rather commonly to light. A new Hertfordshire 

 locality has to be recorded for the broad-bordered five spot burnet- 

 moth [Zyga^ia trifolii). On the 14th of July Mr. S. H. Spencer 

 had a specimen of this insect taken to him by his friend, Mr. Edwin 

 Jackson, who found it drying its wings on a thistle at Watford. 



Mr. Latehmore tells me that he noticed a number of webs of the 

 little eggar-moth {Eriogaster lanestris) on hawthorn and sloe bushes, 

 but did not attempt to rear any. Two years ago I di-ew the 

 attention of our members to this moth, which is interesting on 

 account of the length of time during which it will remain in the 

 chrysalis state. I captured a number of the larvae both in 1892 

 and 1893, and they fed-up and in due time became chrysalises. 

 Many of those reared in 1892 are still in the pupa state, and 

 scarcely one of the 1893 brood has yet become a perfect insect, 

 although I have some scores of them. They emerge at the rate 

 of about three a year, so that it takes a considerable amount of 

 time and patience to obtain a nice series for the cabinet. 



In 1893 I alluded to the fact that four years previously Mr. 

 Arthur Lewis, of Sparrowswick, St. Albans, liberated some larvae 

 of the emperor- moth (^Saturnia paronia) in his garden, and the 

 insect appears to have established itself on Bernard's Heath, which 

 adjoins his grounds. On the 31st of August last Miss E. A. 

 Ormerod kindly sent to me four larvae and a pupa of this handsome 

 insect which had been taken on the Heath and sent to her. The 

 larvae were full-grown, and three of them began to spin their 

 cocoons at once, the other feeding on sloe and plum for some days 

 longer. On the 4th of April Mr. E. G. Bryant, of St. Peter's Street, 

 St. Albans, sent to me a female imago of this species which his 

 little boy had picked up in the street. She laid a number of bright 

 green eggs, but they proved to be infertile. Specimens of the 



