NOTES ON COLLECTING. 131 



a number of larvfe of Dasi/cJiira fascelina , Arctia caia and Phrar/matobia 

 fidiiiinosa. Halting at Liverpool on my return journey, I went to 

 Wallasey ior Xi/ssia -^onaria, and in a couple of hours had secured all I 

 wanted ((? and ?) from the dwarf sallows. At one spot, I found 

 14(? s in a bunch, round 2 or 3 5 s, evidently a case of assembly. The 

 males are easy to find, but the females want looking for, until you get 

 into the habit of spotting them. The iarvfe of A. caia proved dis- 

 appointing, as there was not a single " variety " among those bred. I 

 found no difficulty in rearing the 1). fascdina. I sleeved them on 

 sallow, and beyond shifting them when the food was finished I gave 

 them no attention, yet some 90% emerged. A few specimens of 'Antidea 

 hadiata, Ali'itcisjiictan'a, Cidaria tniata (1) and Hijpena mstralis brought 

 me into May. The first three days of that month I spent in the New 

 Forest, and secured a quantity of Boarmia cinctaria, Tcphroda crcpuscu- 

 laria, T. consonarla, Kiqdtliccia nanata, E. paiiiilata, Xylocampa areola, 

 besides larvae of Boarmia roboraria, PhorodeHma bajnlaria, Triplracna 

 I'unbria, Boarmia rcpandata, Noctiia brunnca, &c. On May 4th I was 

 home again, and tried beating ash for larvte of CirrJwcdia xerampdina. 

 A bag of 15 was the result, nearly all of which emerged in due course. 

 The plan I adopted for beating the larvie, our ash-trees here being all 

 high and well-grown, was to make my two sons hold a large bed-sheet 

 under the tree, Avhile I beat with a 20 foot ash-pole, at about 9 p.m. 

 During the next fortnight I got a fair number of larvae of Tripliaeiia inter - 

 jecta and T. ia}tthi)ia by searching the hedgerows here, and of (renmetra 

 rernaria by beating clematis. My first JJ. fascelina larva pupated on 

 May 14th. On May 17th I began to look for, and find, larvJE of 

 Scotosia rhamnata and .S. retulata on buckthorn bushes, but found none 

 of .S. dubitata, which apparently does not occur here. On May 20th I 

 found numbers of larvae of Leucania straminca on Arnndo p/irafpnites, 

 at night. On May 21st I ran down to Folkestone. Larvas of Portheda 

 c/tri/siirr/uiea were on one or two bushes only in the Warren, but there 

 were quantities of them on the shingle near Hythe. I got some half-score 

 larvfP of Tapimistdla morrisH (bondii) after much trouble, but all died. 

 They are apparently so sluggish that they will not move to fresh food, and 

 as, naturally, the stem of grass in which they were feeding, died soon 

 after being cut, the larva- starved, although I brought home a large 

 root of the grass and placed them on it. A visit to Saltwood for larv!E 

 of Kupithecia snbciliata was fruitless — maple being very scarce there, 

 so far as I could judge. I wonder where Dr. Knaggs' secured his 

 larvfe ! I was home again on May 25th, and that night a fine S Clostera 

 ciirtida came to light in my smoking-room. On May 29th I beat larvag 

 of Kutricha quercifolia (1) and Trichinra crataet/i (2) from hawthorn. A 

 run down to Deal on ^lay 30th was fruitless, except for larvfB of P. 

 chri/sorrliuea. These were in countless thousands on the sea buckthorn, 

 so much so that hundreds and hundreds must have died solely of 

 starvation. It was simply merciful to take the larva? and rear them 

 for the more rapid death of the ammonia bottle. On June 3rd I found 

 I {diodes arbiiti common in one field here, and soon had all I wanted, 

 while Zonusoma omicronaria was also plentiful. From June 5th to 

 10th I was in the New Forest, Macrcxjlossa b(»id)i/lij'(>nnis was scarce, 

 and I only took one poor specimen, hnt M.fiiciformis (broad-bordered), 

 was common at Audea blossom, in Rhinefield. I also bagged several 

 Scodiona behjiaria, PnpitJuria pKsillata, Enpisteria heparata, I li/jisiiietrs 



