X58 [December, 



Pieris Daplidice in DevonsJnre. — I have just had a very good ? specimen of 

 P. Daplidice given me by E. C. A. Byrom, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 taken by himself last May, flying over long grass about the middle of the day in the 

 grounds at Culver, near Exeter. (Newman, British Butterflies, p. 159, says, " May 

 and August. The August specimens only are taken in this country.") 



Curious food for larvcB. — At the beginning of October, I found several young 

 larva? feeding on low-growing plants under a white-thorn hedge : they were placed 

 in a cage with a supply of food, and on renewing their food afterwards I was sur- 

 prised to find a bunch of haws nibbled completely down to the seed in the centre. 

 I searched carefully for slugs, sow-bugs, &c., but none had been included, and I then 

 introduced a large bunch of fresh haws with the new supply of food : the next 

 morning the berries were all eaten as before, and the larvae had apparently attacked 

 them in preference to their usual food. The larvae were so young that I could not 

 make out the species, and I have not seen them since. Might not this suggest 

 berries, &c., as a convenient food for hibernating and semi-hibernating larvae? 



Acherontia Atropos at Epsom, Sfc. — During August I had several specimens of the 

 larva of this insect brought me, viz., one on each of the following days : August 18th, 

 21st, 22nd, 27th, September 15th. Those on the 18th and 22nd August were sent 

 me by Mr. Chandler, of Epsom, both having been found in a very small patch of 

 potatoes in his garden. A bee-hive adjoining may possibly account for two having 

 been found in such a small space. The larva on the 21st was found in our own 

 potatoes, or, rather, on the bare ground, the haulm having been all dead for some 

 time ; and the last two were both taken in fields at Epsom, where all the haulm 

 was dead or had been cut for some time previous. Beside the above captures, one 

 was taken by a man at Ashtead and subsequently let out unharmed, and one by a 

 gardener at Epsom, who put it under a bell -jar whence it managed to escape. I hear 

 that several larvae were found this year also in the vicinity of Headley, feeding on dog- 

 wood, in a hedge. My informant had seen the remains of the plant, eaten nearly to 

 the ground, but the larvae had been already taken. A fine pupa, dug at Epsom, 

 was also brought me at the beginning of this month. The only previous capture I 

 have heard of in the vicinity of late years was that of a fine female taken in Banstead 

 Churchyard, last year, by a baker. When at Christchurch, Hants, in September, I 

 heard that the larvae had been common, but did not come across a pupa. A speci- 

 men of the perfect insect is reported as having been taken intlie Forest of Glentanar, 

 in the Aberdeen Journal, October 27th. — A. Vernon Jones, Trinity College, 

 Cambridge : October 31«^, 1877. 



Acherontia Atropos in the County Cork. — When staying lately at Schull, I saw 

 a specimen of this molh, which was taken there about the end of July, this year. A 

 lady captured it late in the evening, while it was at rest in the hall of her father's 

 house. The habit that this species has of entering bee-hives is well known, and it is 

 called by the country people the " bee-robber," and it may, therefore, be worthy of 

 note, that bees have for several years settled in one of the chimneys of the house in 

 which this specimen was captured. — ^William W. Flemyng, 18, Upper Eitzwilliam 

 Street, Dublin : 8/A JS'orember, 1877. 



LeiKunia albipuncta at Freshwater, I. W. — It may be worth while to record 



