1897.] 99 



variable iu both insects, and not to be relied upon as a specific cha- 

 racter. In both P. cornutus and P. alutaceus the elytra are margined 

 at the apex, as well as along the suture. P. alutaceus is widely dis- 

 tributed on the continent. 



Horsell, Woking : 



April nth, 1897. 



ON THE HABITS OF CIDARIA RETICULATA* 

 BT THE EEV. AUTHUIi MILES MOSS. 



Having been made acquainted by a friend with the food-plant, 

 the wild balsam (^Impatiens noli-me-tangere) , and seeing from Newman 

 that July was the month for the moth, I determined to go and search. 

 It was July 4th, 1892, and, as though by inspiration, I went straight 

 to a spot in Westmoreland where I had an idea that I had seen the 

 plant, I found it at once, and within five minutes was rewarded — to 

 my intense joy and more intense astonishment — for a beautiful fresh 

 specimen of C. reticulata flew up out of the balsam and settled on a 

 nettle leaf before my eyes. 



I W'ent hot and cold in turns lest I should miss it, but was soon 

 able to breathe freely when I saw it safely in the net. I could hardly 

 believe my eyes, for my hunts are by no means always successful, and 

 on this occasion I had not dared to anticipate success. I succeeded 

 in catching two more that afternoon, missing another ; they were not 

 such good specimens as the first, and as the season had been very hot, 

 I do not doubt that they were out before the end of June. 



I paid several more visits and caught ten or a dozen altogether, 

 but never saw many at one time, and generally succeeded in missing 

 as many as I caught. The balsam grows in patches over an area of 

 (roughly) 400 yards in length and 100 in breadth, on a very steep side 

 of a hill, among loose slatey stones and moss-covered rock, and 

 generally under the shade of trees and saplings. These circumstances 

 combined will perhaps furnish an excuse for my being so clumsy as 

 generally to miss one-half of what I saw, and several times I nearly 

 sprained my ankle. 



I generally found the moth sitting on a tree trunk, though occa- 

 sionally it started out of the food-plant when the latter was plentiful ; 

 but I never found it sitting on a rock or stone. Sometimes when it 

 was difficult to net I succeeded in bottling it straight off, but often 

 lost the specimen in the attempt, as it flies very sharply, generally over 

 the top of branches ten or a dozen feet from the ground, and settles 



* Read at the Meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society on March sth, ISy?. 



1 i 



