NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 45 



slender, dark, curved, dotted line (not at all conspicuous, but showing 

 under a lens) the curve passing backward on either side of the segment, 

 passing up over the dorsal area and uniting in the dorsal line, thus 

 forming a crescent on each segment, the horns of the crescent being 

 the dark marks and directed towards the head ; there is also a short 

 black diagonal line on the side of each segment (below the subdorsal 

 Hne) but it is not at all conspicuous. The spiracles consist of black 

 dots. The ventral area is yellowish, with a faint greenish tinge. — E. 

 W. Brown, The Verne, Portland. 



Note on Eupithecia pumilata. — I fancy this species has regularly 

 three broods each season, in a state of nature. Until last year my 

 knowledge of it was as follows : — A brood of imagines flying in April 

 and fre([uenting sallow^ blossom and furze bushes, the larva; of this 

 brood (I presumed) fed upon various flowers, chiefly those of the 

 furze, and developed the second brood of imagines, which I was 

 accustomed to net in the summer. What I supposed to be the off- 

 spring of this summer brood, I had frequently beaten, as larvae, from 

 ragwort, etc., in September and October, and had reared from them 

 the spring brood the following year. 



About the 20th of May last year, I beat some larvae of this species 

 at Croydon from the blossoms of furze, these produced imagines 

 during July, the last specimen emerging on the 20th of that month. 

 Whilst on a visit to Aldeburgh, Suffolk (as stated in this magazine last 

 month) I found the second brood of the perfect insect very common, 

 about the 12th of July, this date shows that the emergence of the 

 bred specimens was not premature. Erom some females captured at 

 Aldeburgh I obtained a number of ova ; these hatched by the end of 

 July, fed very rapidly, pupated by the middle of August, and emerged 

 on the 23rd and 24th of that month (two specimens only, the remainder 

 of the larvae dying). 



Erom the result of the above observations the life-history of this 

 species appears to be briefly thus in the south and east of England. 

 A brood of imagines emerges in April, these deposit ova on various 

 plants, one of which, and probably the chief, is furze ( Ulex), the larvcX 

 from those are full fed by end of May, pupate and emerge about 

 the middle of July as a second brood of imagines, these in their turn 

 deposit ova by end of July, produce larvae in a few days, which develop 

 rapidly, pupate, and emerge as imagines by the end of August, as the 

 third brood. This generation, no doubt, consists of the parents of the 

 larvae we are accustomed to beat in September and October from rag- 

 wort, etc. — W. G. Sheldon, Croydon. March 12, 1890. 



EOODPLANT OF TORTRIX FORSTERANA (aDJUNCTANa). — SomC ivy 



plants in my back garden are quite brown with the work of the larva 

 of Tortrix forsterana. I never saw the insect in the garden until last 

 summer but it has soon made itself at home here. Treitschke says 

 that the larva of this species feeds on leaves of Finus picea, probably an 

 error ; while Zeller gives Vacdtiiuin myrtillus, a food from which Mr. 

 J. B. Hodgkinson has bred it. The larva hybernatcs when very small 

 in a little hollow formed by joining two leaves together. In the early 

 spring the larva comniences to feed again, fastening a part of one 

 leaf almost flat down on another, living between them, and eating 



