142 [November, 



in taking four more of the moths, obtained eggs from two females ; noticed a plant 

 Tery much eaten in the locality where the moths were taken, and a deal of frass, like 

 that of NoctucB larvae, underneath the plants ; consequently he brought the seeds to 

 try to grow the plant for the larvae to feed on in spring. 



The plant is red rattle, Pedicularis palustris. The moth was so local, that 

 although two men were sugaring for it, none were taken except in one spot of about 

 a quarter of a mile in extent. Different plans in the neighbourhood were tried, 

 higher up the mountain and on both sides of the favoured spot, also the wood by the 

 lake side, but not a single moth could be found except where the first specimens were 

 obtained. 



The eggs were laid on or about the 2nd of September, and hatched on the 2nd 

 or 3rd of October. I sent a few to three of my friends, none of whom seemed to 

 recognise the eggs as those of Ititulenta, though two of them had bred lutulenta from 

 the egg. 



The Eev. J. Hellins thus describes it : — " Somewhat depressed, globular, opaque, 

 with small button on top, surrounded by irregular flutings (or shallow ribsj with 

 transverse reticulation, about 35 flutings or i*ibs, shell glistening, colour now pale dull 

 yellowish, irregularly blotched to a great extent with purplish-brovra, a small egg for 

 size of moth." I may here remark that the moths are much smaller than the 

 lutulenta we take here, and Mr. Greaseley says the eggs were pale yellow when first 

 laid. Before hatching, they changed to deep lead colour, and just before they hatched 

 became lighter, pale blue-grey. The young larva; are green with a few hairs or spines 

 and dark heads. I suppose all young larvae are very much alike, they feed well on 

 grass and knot grass. 



Mr. R. McLaclilan kindly examined the anal appendages of a male I sent him 

 for the purpose of comparison with the type form of lutulenta, and found no apparent 

 specific difference, which exactly corresponds with my own observation. 



Mr. N. Greening, of Warrington, came here to see the series which I sent for 

 Mr. Bond to exhibit at the Meeting of the Entomological Society in London, 

 on the 4th inst., and he said Mr. James Cooper brought the same variety from Loch 

 Eannoch about twenty-five years ago for us, — a fact which I had entirely forgotten, but 

 which accounts for a specimen I found in my brother Benjamin's cabinet at Bowdon. 



It is such an interesting variety, and itself varies from light grey to neai'ly black, 

 that if any of us succeed in rearing the larvse, very likely more will be written about 

 it for the information of yoiu- readers. — Nicholas Cooke, Gorsey Hey, Liscard : 

 12th October, 1876. 



Notes on Cidaria reticulata. — This pretty species was taken by the late T. H. 

 Allis and myself when on a tour in the Lake District in 1856. In the first week in 

 August, for several years, we visited the same spot without success. Mr. Allis told 

 a collector, who now and again went to the woods, that he had left pieces of paper 

 stuck on thorns for my guidance, and when he called on the man found he had taken 

 five examples. The collector has been many times since to the same locality to no 

 purpose. Some seven years afterwards, I\Ir. Gregson took a specimen when I was 

 with him, and the next year another. On this latter journey he found the supposed 

 food plant, Irnpatiens noU-me-tangere. He sent»word to the Eev. J. Hellins that he 



