48 THE entomologist's KECOKD. 



September 5th-October 22nd ; these varied to a limited extent in 

 colour, but none of them approached cosiiiodactijla in general facies. 

 Although J have not known accoitJiuikicti/la larvae attempt to prey 

 upon one another (doubtless not appreciating a hairy diet), they proved 

 on this, as on all other occasions in my experience, fearful cannibals 

 as regards the naked pupa? of their own species, which they greedily 

 devoured at every opportunity, in spite of having an abundant supply 

 of fresh food. To minimise the loss from this cause, it was found 

 necessary to remove, each day, all the newly-formed pupae from the 

 jars in which the larvse were kept. The variation in the colour of the 

 larvffi (including that of the head afti'r the final moult), and of the 

 pupffi, of acanthodactjjla, is most remarkable. To my great disa.ppoint- 

 ment, no larva; of P. cnsmudactijla were found, but one spot, where 

 acanthi)dact)/la larvffi were common, yielded me, on September 3rd, a 

 female cos)iiodact!/la, and some pupa? on Stachys sylvatica, from which, 

 among various acanthodacti/la, three coaiiiodacti/la, apparently all J s, 

 emerged September 7th-llfch. The captured c()S}iiudactylu, which 

 firmly declined to oviposit, and so to give me the chance of rearing 

 a brood before the winter, was kept alive, and although, before 

 hibernation, she occasionally regaled herself upon the ivy bloom in 

 her cage, she succumbed, alas ! on the very last day of the old year, 

 by which date all the aranthodactyla, that I had hoped would successfully 

 hibernate, were already dead. The moths were kept in a fireless room, 

 facing north, and supplied with fresh ivy-bloom in the autumn. In 

 answer to the Rev. C. D. Ash's inquiry {Ent. Bee, xvi., 240) as to the 

 probable foodplant of P. acanthodactyla on the moors, it seems to me 

 quite likely that the larvs feed there on the flowers of PWica cinerea 

 and K. tetrali.r : these would, I have little doubt, be available, at any 

 rate on our southern moors (" heaths," as they are called here), for 

 the larva^ of both broods, though Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher thinks it* 

 possible that those of the earlier one may feed on gorse {Jjle.r enropaeus) 

 bloom. P. acanthodactyla is well-known to be polyphagous, but, to 

 the best of my belief, none of the many foodplants, that I have seen 

 recorded by British and Continental authors, grow in some of the 

 heathy spots it frequents. Perhaps Mr. Ash will search for the larva? 

 on the Skipwith moor in the coming season, and I will endeavour to 

 do so here, having found last year, for the first time, a locality for it 

 on our heath, and being anxious to place the question of the foodplant 

 in such a spot beyond the region of mere guess-work. — Eustace R. 

 Bankes, M.A., Norden, Corfe Castle. January 21.si, 1905. [Roessler 

 found larvsB in August on the bloom of Callnna ndyaris, Hering on 

 Vacciniuvi o.rycocciis and Erica tetralix, — Ed.] 



Macrothylacia kubi, L., feedin(; on Myrica gale. — To the already 

 lengthy list of foodplants of Macrothylacia ndu, recorded in Mr. Tutt's 

 Nat. Hint. J>rit. Lcji., iii, 144, I can add Myrica yalc, having found, 

 last October, on the heath near here, a well-grown larva clinging to 

 this plant, and busily engaged in devouring the leaves.— Eustace R. 

 Bankes, Norden, Corfe Castle. January 23r(7, 1906. 



Syrichthus malv^ in April. — On April 25th, 1904, I was surprised 

 to notice, flying in the sunshine on a strip of warm underclili' on the 

 Isle of Purbeckcoast,a precocious specimen of SyricJtthus malvac, which, 

 on being duly netted, proved to be a female in grand condition. This 

 early appearance was rendered the more remarkable by the fact that 



