THK STOUV OF ACIDALIA CONTlorAKlA. 127 



they are aroused into activity the flight is exceedingly languid and 

 lazy. It very much resembles the hovering flight of the Crambids, 

 and many of these have I netted in the possible hope that they might 

 turn out the real thing, and, once in a way, at rare intervals, 1 have 

 not been disappointed. And after all, these Crambids were certainly 

 worth a little attention, for instead of our familiar friends Craiithns 

 pratcUm and ('. ndnuilm, we were lucky enough on one or two 

 occasions to stumble across a specimen of Cranibiis pinetelliiH. Con- 

 sidering all things, it is most probable, as my father remarks in his notes, 

 that Aciilalia coutii/iiaria is at no time very active, and that the insect 

 prefers to idle through its brief imago state in listless and luxurious ease. 

 We have known specimens active, however, and that exactly at the time 

 when they ought to have been on their best behaviour. On certain 

 foolish occasions, when, in the seclusion of the parlour in our apart- 

 ments, we have partially raised the lids of our boxes to gloat over the 

 precious spoil, and to see whether they have begun to deposit their yet 

 more precious ova, or, at other times, when we have been more 

 legitimately placing the day's captures under a bell-jar, to afford them 

 the joys of social communion with other members of their kind — then 

 hey, presto ! the room has been full of them. In an instant, every 

 member of the family has been groping on the floor, or wildly flourishing 

 a net about four sizes too big for the room, while the ornaments and 

 pictures rattle down unheeded, and the weekly expenses mount up to 

 fabulous sums in two disastrous minutes ! And among the debris: on 

 the floor grovels the president of the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Entomological Society, while from his white and trembling lips 

 issue strange mysterious mutterings. In his calmer moments, 

 when peace is restored, he will assure you he has mentioned nothing 

 that cannot be found in the exchange list of British lepidoptera : 

 but, if so, that must be an exceedingly lurid document, scrupulously 

 to be kept out of the hands of the "young person." And this 

 is, I am afraid, the most interesting thing I can tell you about 

 the flight of A. contiiitiana. But, seriously, if the insect were at all 

 active, in the multitudes that we have reared, and kept for days during 

 the process of ovulation, surely we must have discovered the time of 

 flight, did it occur with any definite regularity. 



With regard to the rearing of the insect I am not, personally, able to 

 speak with much authority, since this was not my department. My 

 two sisters, Mrs. Corbett and Miss Ada Capper, who superintended 

 and cared for many prodigious families of them, will probably inform 

 you that, however placid the parents nijiy be, their ott'spring in the 

 larval stage certainly do not take after them, the changing of their food 

 in their early, almost microscopical, days, being an anxious perform- 

 ance. At first the feeding of the brood presented a grave difficulty, 

 seeing that in this neighbourhood a constant supply of heather was 

 absolutely unavailable. However, this difficulty vanished when we 

 discovered that the minute members of our brood took readily to knot- 

 grass, and, later, when it was found that they appreciated chickweed 

 with even greater relish, you may be very certain that there was always 

 a little patch in the greenhouse, sacred to its cultivation. Artificially 

 we produced many broods. Our first brood, after the July capture, 

 appeared again in the imaginal state in September. It would have been 

 most interesting to visit north Wales at this season to ascertain 



