NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 205 



sandhills, between Swansea Bay and Mumbles Road Stations, there 

 being wooden railings on each side, the posts of which I sugared for 

 half a mile or so, but my entire bag consisted of about half a dozen 

 each of Agrotis ripce, Leucatiia littoraiis, and a few Alamestra albicolon, 

 A. tritici, Viminia rumicis and Miami furimcula ; these being all the 

 NocTU.'E I turned up there, excepting one A. prcuox, which was taken 

 by shaking the crests of the sandrush, growing in profusion there. 

 Geometr.b were a little more plentiful, Eubolia litteoluta and Cidaria 

 fulvata being very common among the Galium and sandroses, with an 

 occasional Melaiiippe galiata and Epioiie apiciaria, a rather extraordinary 

 place for the latter, as I observed no willow or nut near, and have 

 never heard of them feeding on poplar ^ (which occurs there), although 

 Merrin gives it as a foodplant. Larentia didymata simply swarmed 

 along a ditch close by, and appeared to me to be darker than those I 

 took in Hampshire two years ago. I managed to find time, amid brief 

 intervals of sunshine, to make two or three excursions inland, and came 

 across Zygcrna trifolii and Z. filipeudulcc in the same field, which was a 

 boggy sort of place, and which I am afraid will be overrun next year, 

 as a colliery has started thirty or forty yards off. Acidalia iDimiifata 

 also occurred in the same place, but all were more or less worn or laded, 

 though oddly enough the ^J's of Z. trifolii were in moderately good 

 condition, while the ? 's were decidedly /ai-i-t'^, which I think is revers- 

 ing the general order of things, as I always fancied the $ 's emerged 

 first. I managed to get some ova, and have some larvae still feeding, 

 though I doubt whether I shall be able to get them over the winter. 

 Never having tried rearing that species before, I should be very much 

 obliged to any one who has, who could give me a few wrinkles on the' 

 subject. The railway banks between Killay and Gowerton Stations 

 yielded Emmelesia albulata, Eticlidia mi, Asthena Infeata, Eubolia 

 palumbaria, and the black form of Ypsipetes elutata (bilberry-fed, 1 

 think it is called) on the wing, and Viminia rumicis at rest on posts. At 

 Penllergare, which is about five miles from Swansea (inland), I took a 

 few Hydrelia unca, which were rather worn, on June 14th, and in the 

 same condition (rather better if anything) on July 21st, there being a 

 succession of emergences, I presume, as I am told there is a second 

 brood in September. It is rather a difficult thing to get them, owing to 

 the nature of the ground where they occur, as you sometimes find your- 

 self deposited in a ditch in following them up. They start out of the 

 sedge, fly for twenty yards or so, and then down again ; so keeping your 

 eye on the spot where they alight, you cannot see where you are walk- 

 ing. I also got Argy?inis seleiie, Fliytometra ce/iea, A. remutaia, and a 

 few larvae of Clostera reclusa, which, I believe, has not been turned up 

 there before. I netted one specimen of the bee-beetle, which hovers 

 over flowers (preparatory to alighting) like Macroglossa bombylifonnis. 

 On rhododendrons, about a mile and a half from the sandhills, I took 

 over a dozen Chccrocampa porcellus, 2 C. elpenor, and i Flusia pul- 

 chrina, also a few Ilermifiia tarsipennalis ; sugar in the same place pro- 

 duced I Thyaiira bails, i T. derasa. Bade /in pisi, H. thalassina, 

 Xylophasta rurea, and i Grammesia trilinea var. billnca, while Uydrivcta 

 niditans and Noctua timbrosa came to the flowering seed-heads of the 

 leek. I got Bryophila perla on walls, but only a few. Nothing what- 

 ' We get more from poplar than willow at Deal. — Ed. 



