1(5 [Jime, 



JEarly appearance of Catoptria aspidiscana and HJlachista suhnigrella. — On the 

 Gth inst., as it was fine and warm, I paid a visit to Grange, and took a female of C. 

 aspidiscana. I had spent five hours without much result until 4 p.m., when, to my 

 surprise, Ulachista suinigrella turned up, and I succeeded in taking a score of speci- 

 mens, but only one female among the lot. Gracilaria aurogtdtella, Pancalia Leeuwen- 

 hoekella, and a few Lithocolletis, made up my catch. Two days later, I again went 

 prepared to fill some scores of boxes, but things had changed, and I had only four 

 moths to set after spending a day and travelling seventy-two miles. A cold wind did 

 all the mischief — J. B. HoDGKiNSON, 15, Spring Bank, Preston : May Wth, 1876. 



Note on sugaring. — In reply to Mr. Porritt, concerning my note on sugaring 

 (Vol. xii, p. 207), I may state that the ivy was perfectly free from dew when I sugared 

 it, and also, that no rain had fallen for some days previous. I may also state what 

 I omitted to mention before, that I subsequently sugared several times, in the same 

 manner and place, and invariably with the same result, — many insects at the sugar 

 and very few at the ivy bloom. I do not think that sugaring has had the attention 

 paid to it that it .deserves. From accounts received from difPerent quarters, ivy 

 bloom does not seem to possess such great attraction for insects in Scotland, in some 

 parts at least, but by making a series of trials of sugaring near ivy, next autumn, 

 and,bynoting down the results,! may obtain more decided evidence. — Wm. Sandison, 

 Glasgow : IWi March, 1876. 



A strange Mbernaculum. — Wliile examining our one church bell on March 28th, 

 I was surprised to find, in the interior, eight specimens of Qonoptera libatrix and 

 three of Vanessa urticce. The bell is never rung mouth upwards, but even in 

 ordinary chiming one would have thought the vibration must be too great to make 

 such a situation at all desirable as winter quarters. — H. Jenner Fust, Jun., 

 Hill Court, Gloucestershire : April Srd, 1876. 



Observations on the development, indoors, of hibernating pupcB of Lepidoptera. — 

 The often inexplicable death of pupa?, when hibernating in the house, induced me to 

 make close observation of the matter, in order to ascertain the cause of the great 

 mortality. The number of pupae which I collected for this purpose, in the autumn of 

 1872, amounted to several hundreds, and included most of the genera of the Maorop- 

 tera. I put them, bedded on moss, in a large receptacle in the room, and moistened 

 them with water from time to time. Treated in this manner, only one-half of the 

 pupse produced perfect insects ; the other half became diseased, so that the segments 

 of the abdomen gradually became contracted, movement became impossible, and thus 

 the death of the pupae ensued. In some other species, such as Smerinthus ocellatus, 

 in consequence of being too little moistened, the pupa-case had become so hardened 

 that the moth could not break through it, and died inside, although fully developed. 

 These results showed me that pupa) kept indoors must be kept damper, and in the 

 following year I made a renewed attempt with a number of pupse equal to that of 

 the foregoing year. At the end of December I brouglit them from a cold into a 

 warm room, and sprinkled them with water daily, wliercupon Papilio Machaon and 

 others, which only wanted a short time for their perfect development, were influenced 



