RANDOM NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 127 



a piece of cork laid an egg, which hatched five days after, and the larva 

 fed up rapidly with others I then had. 



August 9th. — A thick drizzle all the morning, and a strong S.W. 

 wind all day, far too strong to attejiapt any out-door work. In the 

 evening, about dusk, wtiile I was in my dressing-room, several moths 

 flew in at the window, attracted by the light. The window faced 

 east — so was on the sheltered side of the house — and overlooked a 

 large, rough meadow, and there were heathy moors and fir plantations 

 beyond. Just outside the window there was a large mountain-ash 

 tree, which rather obscured the view. As everything out-of-doors was 

 reeking wet after the rain, and the wind was still high, I thought I 

 might just as well try and see what a light would produce, so about 

 9 o'clock I placed a small lamp upon a table just inside the window, 

 and the result was rather astonishing, for moths came streaming in 

 at once in scores, and for a couple of hours I was hard at it netting 

 and boxing. Altogether I boxed forty-two species, but they were 

 mostly common, the best being PlaUipterijx haiiiula, Lycuphotia 

 striijida, Acidalia iniitaria, Pachyciieiiiia hippocastanaria, Ht/droecia 

 nirtitans, Cerigo cytherea, and Crainbiis selasellas — and the most 

 numerous was Malacosoiiia neiistiia, which was a perfect nuisance, 

 buzzing into my face, and getting into my boxes, when I was trying 

 to box something else ! 



August 10th. — Finer than yesterday, but still a strong westerly 

 wind. During the day I visited a large marshy meadow overgrown with 

 sweet-gale, where I found a few J'eronea caleddniana, Tortrix vihurniana, 

 Bactra lanceolana, etc., but the high wind carried most of them away 

 as soon as they were beaten out of the bushes, so I had to give it up. 



From 11th to 14th August there was a continuance of fine driving 

 rain with high wind, and very little could l)e done in the Avay of 

 collecting, so about this time I began searching for eggs of A. yrapho- 

 dactyla, and had very fair success ; they were not at all difidcalt to 

 find, for they are large for the size of the moth. I was induced to try 

 this method on account of having picked a couple of stems of marsh 

 gentian on the 12th, and upon examining the fiower-buds with a 

 pocket lens, discovered two ova (hatched) on the outside of the 

 buds, about two-thirds from the base, and the next day I noticed two 

 others that I had overlooked. I could see no signs of the larvae, nor 

 could I detect any holes eaten through the closed petals, but I was 

 convinced that they were inside. This stem was placed in water, and 

 in due course the four larvae showed themselves. The parent moth 

 does not seem to work by any fixed rule, for I found the eggs in all 

 kinds of positions — on the flowers, both on the outside of the petals, 

 and sometimes on the inside, when the flowers were open, on the calyx, 

 leaves, flower stems, at various distances from the flowers, and even 

 occasionally on dry grass bents near the flowers — and very often the 

 eggs were laid in pairs. It is a remarkably easy insect to rear. The 

 flower-stems, with the eggs, were picked with good long stalks, and 

 placed in a wide-mouthed bottle, with a little sphagnum between the 

 stems, so that they should not be close together, and then a muslin 

 hood was tied over — the stems keep for a long time, and when the 

 larvfe had devoured most of the flowers and flower-buds, fresh stems 

 were introduced. 



August 15th. — With the exception of a couple of sharp showers in 



