218 THE entomologist's record. 



valli, Setina aurita, Erebia evias, Arctomyscis myricae. May 30th, 

 Lago d'Elio and Pino, Erchia viedusa. A beetle that very closely 

 resembles the ovoviviparous Orina tristh, and on the same foodplant, 

 was abundant on Cento urea at one spot ; it cannot, however, be that 

 species, as it lays ordinary eggs, whilst those of 0. tristis are close on 

 hatching when laid. June 8th, Oberalp, Titamu schra}ikiana was in 

 some numbers settling on the road, although the ground was covered 

 with the unmelted winter's snow close by. 



::^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Swarming of Hepialus lupulinus. — On the evening of July 11th, 

 in my garden at Hale End, Walthamstow, I noticed a number of 

 Hepialus lupulinus flying round a vegetable-marrow plant. They were 

 all males, and evidently assembling, but on a careful search for the $ 

 I failed to discover her. Their attention was chiefly devoted to the 

 topmost leaf, which had been caught by the frost two nights before, 

 and was discoloured and drooping, though the stalk was rigid. There 

 must have been 30 or 40 H. lupulinus flying round and swarming over 

 this leaf, in a very excited state, with upward-curved abdomina. I cut 

 off the leaf and examined it. It had a faint hay-like odour, and there 

 was nothing to be seen on it. I stuck it in the ground some distance 

 away from the marrow plant, and the H. lupulinus at once swarmed 

 round it again, having left the plant, and I boxed eleven of them at three 

 attempts. Towards the end of the time of flight I moved it again to 

 the other end of the garden. There were no H. lupulinus in sight here, 

 but in two minutes there were a dozen or more round the leaf. This case 

 seems to show plainly that, with these species at any rate, the attrac- 

 tion is exercised through the sense of smell, and not by any mysterious 

 ' 6th sense ' unknown to man. — R. W. Bobbins. 19, Woodland Villa, 

 Hale End, Walthamstow. June 12th, 1902. 



Spring Lepidoptera.- — The last few days of sunshine seem to have 

 stimulated the butterfly-life of this district. Gonepteryx rhainni, 

 Vanessa io, Aglais urticae, and Eugonia polychloros have been seen more 

 or less conniionly. E. polychloros is, in these parts regarded as far 

 from common, so that the occurrence of four examples (two of them 

 at sallows) in the course of a day's walk, is worth noticing. Cases of 

 Proutia hetulina have been found in increasing numbers on tree-trunks 

 from March 80th to date. Two or three cases which appeared to me 

 to be different from the rest inasmuch as they looked like something 

 between P. hetulina and Fuwea casta, I thought might prove to be P. 

 eppingella, but I find they are merely a form of P. hetulina. On one 

 tree-trunk that yielded a single P. hetulina, I found three cases quite 

 new to me. They were free from the dressing characteristic of P. 

 hetulina, were narrowed at the neck, and appeared to have a lateral 

 flange. These I sent to Dr. Chapman, who wrote me on Friday last 

 that one of the cases had produced an undoubted Solenohia lichenella. 

 On an elm-trunk at North Shoebury I found on March 31st a small 

 colony of Luffia ferchaultella. These I submitted to Dr. Chapman, 

 who separated therefrom three cases, from which I am hoping to breed 

 Narycia monilifera. Asphalia Jiavicornis is the only insect that has so 

 far appeared in my breeding-cages ; the first emergence^took place on 

 March 22nd, from an Eastwood larva. — F. G. Whittle, 3, Marine 

 Avenue, Southend. April 23rd, 1902. 



