NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 337 



EUPITHECIA EXPALLIDATA, NOCTUA SOBRINA AND ACHERONTIA 



ATROPOS IN Aberdeenshire. — Last August, I captured a few Eupithe- 

 cia expallidata at -the flowers of ragwort. Can anyone tell me if this 

 species has been taken in Scotland before ? Noctua sobritia has been 

 got in fair numbers in Aberdeenshire this year. Four years ago, I 

 turned it up for the first time, and it has been got in gradually in- 

 creasing numbers ever since. A few days ago, I visited a beginner, 

 who collects among the hills ; and he had several in his boxes in fairly 

 good condition. He had also a ? Acherontia atropos, which was got 

 fluttering on a potato plant last July. Is not this an early date ? — 

 W. Reid, Pitcaple, N.B. December, 1890. 



Cloantha solidaginis. — This insect has been very common on 

 Cannock Chase this autumn, a friend and myself capturing one hundred 

 and fifty specimens in one afternoon. They are very easy to find, as 

 they sit on the birch tree trunks during the daytime, principally with 

 their heads thrust into some crevice in the bark, so that their bodies 

 stand out at right angles to the trunks of the trees, rendering them 

 conspicuous. Can anyone tell me, whether they have found this year 

 a bad one for Eupisteria heperata, as last year, on the 8th May, I took 

 some thirty or forty specimens in about an hour on Cannock Chase, 

 while, this spring, on visiting the same spot on the same date, and on 

 three occasions afterwards, I was only able to take one insect ? — E. P. 

 Wright, Stone, Staffs. December, 1890. 



Life-History of Agrotis pyrophila. — Since my notes upon 

 Agrotis pyrophila have appeared in the Record, p. 214, I have had 

 several communications upon the subject, and one correspondent 

 points out, that my description of the larva does not agree with that 

 given in Stainton's Manual. But, as I presume, Stainton's description 

 is that of a full-grown larva, no wonder there was a discrepancy, as my 

 description was taken from a newly-hatched one. As neither descrip- 

 tion can be looked upon as of much value, perhaps I may be allowed 

 to add a little to what I have already said. While collecting in a good 

 locality for this species, I noticed a moth, which, from the peculiar way 

 it was fluttering among the long grass, I thought was a $ Xylophasia 

 polyodon, busily engaged at the interesting ceremony of ovipositing, 

 and, as I am ashamed to state, my knowledge of the early stages of 

 this insect is very limited, I thought this a good opportunity of adding 

 to that knowledge, so I determined to watch operations. As the night 

 was dark, with a strong wind, and my footing anything but good, it was 

 a difficult matter to keep the insect in sight. But, after careful exam- 

 ination, I was able to note that it always deposited on a withered grass 

 culm, high up, and nearly always near the junction of a leaf with the 

 stem, and, as far as I could see, only one ovum upon each leaf. It 

 kept up a constant fluttering, all the time it was depositing, but, this 

 suddenly ceasing, I at once detected, instead of a despised X. polyodon, 

 an exquisite specimen of Agrotis pyrophila ; and, in a trice, it was 

 safely housed within a chip box. The thought crossed my mind, that 

 I should let it out again, but the fear, that it might not renew opera- 

 tions, prevented me from doing so. The ova are light straw coloured, 

 hardly to be detected from the withered grass stems, and, as I said 

 before, very like those of Tryp/uv?ia orbona, but slightly smaller, and 

 turn dark a few days before the larvse emerge. The larvre, when newly 



