NOTES ON COLLECTING. 215 



species whose emergence appears to have been delayed by the cold 

 winds, appeared to come out with a burst, and one saw specimens of 

 Spilosoma lubricipeda at liftht, with numbers of Urapteryx sambucaria, 

 as well as many Mimas tiliac, Arrurrpha populi, and Dicranura vinula. 

 Common Noctuids were particularly abundant — Xylophasia polyodon, 

 Noctua fleet a, and Ai/mtis exclamationis being particularly plentiful in 

 the main streets, both of Lewisham and Greenwich. But the night of 

 July 20th was the most remarkable. On this evening there were 

 absolutely millions of moths on the windows, and round the electric 

 lights, in East Greenwich, the bulk of the specimens consisting of the 

 common ( 'minims culmellus, which must have been attracted from the 

 waste ground of what still exists of Greenwich Marshes. But the 

 common garden Tortricids and Pyralids — of which the beautiful 

 Hypsopygia (Pyralis) costal is was particularly conspicuous — were also 

 in numbers, and Cossus cossus and Zeuzera pyrina were also noted. 

 There appeared to be little worth catching, but this was probably 

 rather from difficulty of observation in a crowded street than from 

 absence of many things one might have taken.- — J. W. Tutt, 119, 

 Westcombe Hill, Blackheath, 8.E. July 24th, 1907. 



Habits of Cidaria populata. — The morning of August 15th, 1907, 

 was cloudy in the Upper Engadine, a walk through the pine wood between 

 St. Moritz and Pontresina showed little enough entomologically. 

 The feature, however, was the abundance of Cidaria populata which 

 was in great abundance. One supposes there must have been many 

 thousands in the wood, apparently almost all at rest on the underside 

 of the bilberry leaves, both sexes almost equally abundant. I was 

 much interested to notice that the males in particular held up the tips 

 of their abdomina, cuving them upwards and forwards almost exactly in 

 the manner of Pyralis farinalis. That the habit is of value to them was 

 proved by my observing an ant, evidently hunting a plant pretty 

 closely, on which a male was resting. The ant at last reached the leaf 

 beneath which the C. populata was, and, advancing quickly over the 

 edge, made a dash for the body. Had the point of the abdomen been 

 in the same plane as the thorax and front part of the abdomen, the 

 ant would assuredly have grabbed it ; as it was, it bustled into a higher 

 point of the abdomen, disturbed the moth, which quickly moved to 

 the top of the leaf, ran quickly along a branch, and prepared to fly 

 off. Many odd examples of the moth were observed on the wing, 

 and one suspects that these may have been similarly disturbed. — 

 Ibid. 



Habits of Fidonia brunneata.— At the same time the males of 

 Fidonia brunneata were flying freely in the wood at a height of from 

 five to seven feet from the ground, but not a single female was observed 

 either on the wing or resting. Similarly, on the morning of July 31st, 

 at Goeschenen, the males were flying commonly. We remember one 

 afternoon in early August, 1903, the males flying freely, and also very 

 many settling on the mule-droppings in the road nearly to Arolla, and 

 picked up one or two females resting by the roadside. When is the 

 active period of the female ? Is she quiescent while the male is active, 

 although ready to pair, and is she active egglaying at night, when he 

 mmably at rest'? Has anyone notes on the habits of the species? 

 — Ibid. 



Issoria lathonia attacked by an ant. — It is a coinmoD experience 



