198 [August, 



Atlantic, was quite common for a few days in the middle of May on gas-lamps, 

 fences, &c., at Oxford. On going to Sheerness early in June, I found P. cardui 

 to be the butterfly most in evidence ; half-a-dozen at a time were to be seen at 

 the flowers of the early-blooming thistle Carduus tenuijlorus, which this season 

 was unusually abundant and luxuriant in growth, and also attracted several 

 worn-looking specimens of Macroglossa stellatarutn, a moth I had not seen on the 

 wing for several years. A large but worn S of Colias edusa was taken near 

 Sheerness on June 1st, and this promise of an " Edusa " year was to a large 

 extent fvilfilled on July 17th. On this day at Milford-on-Sea, Hants, I saw at 

 least a dozen freshly emerged Colias edusa under the cliff's, all apparently J s, 

 but so restless and active in the intense heat that I could not secure a single 

 specimen ; at the same time a few individvials of the new brood of I'yrameis 

 cardui were seen frequenting the thistles in company with the last worn-out 

 stragglers of the " immigi-ants." Fresh specimens of P. atalanta, Flusia gamma, 

 and Nomophila noctuella have been observed here during the last few days. — 

 James J. Walker, Brockenhiirst : July \9th, 1912. 



Sycamore as a natural food of Xanthia aurago. — Although sycamore has some- 

 times been used as a substitute food for beech or maple on which to feed larva; 

 of Xanthia aurago, I am not aware that it was known to be one of the natural 

 foods of the species. The moth has occvxrred very sparingly for many years in 

 South- West Yorkshire, in woods where it seemed impossible that beech or maple 

 could be its food, but where sycamore is abundant. This spring Mr. B. Morley, 

 having reared a few larvae from a moth taken in DefPer Wood, Skelmanthorpe, 

 last autumn, made a search for more on sycamores in the same wood, and soon 

 had the satisfaction of finding that in this part of the county it was quite at 

 home amongst it, at first feeding inside the iinexpanded buds, and afterwards 

 on the foliage, but quite as often, he tells me, on the stalks as on the leaves, the 

 larva biting off the leaf and then eating down the stalk from the top to the base. 

 When not feeding it hides between two leaves of the sycamore. The larvae were 

 not at all uncommon, and now that the habits of the species in this district are 

 known, no doubt the moth will be obtained much more frequently.— 

 Geo. T. Porritt, Elm Lea, Dalton, Huddersfield : July 11th, 1912. 



Macroglossa stellatarum at Putney. — This morning I saw a hiunming-bird 

 moth in the garden. Although Chwrocampa porccllus visits my rhododendrons 

 pretty regularly, it is many years since I have seen M. stellatarum here. — G. 

 B. LoNGSTAFF, Highlands, Putney Heath, S.W. : June 22nd, 1912. 



^ocijfti^s. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society : 

 Thursday, June 23rd, 1912.— Mr. A. E. Tonge, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. West (Greenwich) exhibited the very scarce Orthopteron, Platycleis 

 roeselii from Gravesend, with P. grisea, P. brachyjJtera, and Thamnotrizon 



