•i^r^ 303 



the sugar, but on one post there was a small moth which looked something like a 

 female Agrotis puta, but while I was attempting to box it, it fluttered off into some 

 long herbage where I was unable to find it. I then went on and visited other posts, 

 and upon returning half an hour afterwards saw the same moth was again on the 

 sugar. This time I placed my net under the post, and just as I did so the moth 

 fell into it, and upon boxing it I was pleased to find I had secured another exigua. 

 On my way home on passing a barbed wire fence I happened to throw the rays of 

 my lamp on a pair of Oeonietrce in cop. sitting on the wires. These I boxed, and 

 upon getting home found they were C.fluviata. This was unexpected good luck 

 after such a wretched season ; but more was in store for me, for on the 2oth I took 

 two more exigua at sugar, and think I saw two others. The one taken at sugar on 

 the 22nd I thought was a female, and had kept her for eggs, and the two taken on 

 the 25th I fancied were male and female. (The sexes are rather diSlcult to dis- 

 tinguish when alive). I placed all three moths in a large jam pot together with 

 leaves of various plants, some small pieces of paper, and a bit of tow, and supplied 

 them every night with syrup placed on a piece of sponge. No eggs were deposited 

 until the night of October 1st, when I was delighted to see two or three small 

 batches on the muslin cover, and from this date up to October 14th, when the last 

 moth dier"., small batches appear to have been deposited every night upon the 

 muslin or upon the pieces of paper, but none were laid upon any of the leaves. 

 The eggs began to hatch on October 12th, and they all proved fertile. The young 

 larva9 were supplied with various kinds of food, and now they seem to have settled 

 down to groundsel and dock, showing rather a preference for the latter. They 

 would not touch plantain upon which they are said to feed. They seem to be in- 

 clined to be gregarious in their habits at the present time, but are growing very 

 slowly, and look as if they were preparing to hibernate. The female fluviata was 

 also kept for ova, and the larvae resulting therefrom have just spun up.— Q-ebvask 

 F. Mathew, Dovercourt, Essex : November *lth, 1903. 



[On September 27th eight examples of L. exigua were taken by Mr. Fieldhouse 

 in Yorkshire, and recorded in the " Naturalist," p. 424. — Eds.]. 



Microdon mutahilis, L., at Aberfoyle, Perthshire.— ^WiXq collecting Biptera at 

 Aberfoyle last July I took three specimens of this rare fly. They were taken on 

 different dates (July 2nd, 7th, and 11th) on the hills lying between Aberfoyle and 

 the Trossachs, at an elevation of about 600 feet, at the flowers of heath {Erica 

 cinerea). They were the only specimens seen, and they occurred within quite a 

 small area of ground ; the first two on almost the same spot. My attention was 

 attracted by their peculiar flight, which was more like that of a beetle than a fly ; 

 they also kept low down, and only flew short distances at a time. The spot where 

 I took them was swampy, due in a measure perhaps to the wet season, though I 

 gather from Mr. Verrall's Syrphida, p. 661, that they are found in such places. 

 The species has not, I think, been recorded from Scotland before. Mr. Grimshaw, 

 of the Edinburgh Museum, from whom I have received much kind help, named the 

 species for me, and he has included it in his " Diptera Scotica, III, the Forth 

 District," in Ann. Scot. Nat. His. for October, p. 218.— A. E. J. Cartee, 4, West 

 Holmes Gardens, Musselburgh, N.B. : November 3rd, 1903. 



