NOTES OK COLLECTING, ETC, 17 



in the Enfoniologist (vol. v., p. i6i). He there states that it feeds 

 on ash {Fraxiims excelsior), and is full fed early in July. — Id. 



CoLiAS HYALE IN THE SPRING. — The experience of my friend, Mr. 

 Postans, with regard to this species, does not coincide with my own 

 which dates back to the year 1867. I have never been lucky enough 

 to meet with this species in the spring, and think that spring records 

 are very rare. In 1875, a great hyale year, I took as many as seventy 

 specimens near Maldon, and among them one so deformed that it 

 could barely fly, thus proving conclusivelv that it had been bred in 

 this country. One of the ? deposited (in September) eight eggs — 

 seven in the bottom of a pocket-box, and one on a clover-head : these, 

 however, proved to be infertile, shrivelling up in a few days. It seems 

 to me highly probable that the majority of the specimens of hyale 

 taken in England in ordinary years (when the species is not abundant) 

 are of French birth, and cross over to England in August or 

 September; but that when any considerable number of ? 's happen to 

 come over to us in May or June they deposit their eggs in our clover- 

 fields, and the larvae (thus avoiding the perils of hybernation) thrive 

 and prosper, producing in the autumn a goodly number of imagines. 

 Such a year comes only now and then, but, when it does, it is what 

 our Yankee friends would call a " hyale boom " year ! — Gilbert H. 

 Raynor, Victoria House, Brentwood. March 20th, 1891. 



CoLiAS HYALE IN THE SPRING. — Like the Rev. G. H. Raynor, I 

 have never met with spring C. hyale and have heard but rarely of 

 their occurrence in Britain, and with him I agree that they must 

 almost of necessity be immigrants. 1875 is my only experience of a 

 hyale year. In that year, early specimens in poor condition were not 

 uncommon, and in the August of that year our southern clover-fields 

 were alive with freshly-emerged and emerging specimens. I remember 

 with what delight, on entering a clover-field near Cuxton, I suddenly 

 awakened to the fact that the numerous butterflies scudding about 

 from flower to flower were Colias hyale, and I should be rather 

 ashamed to own how many specimens I captured in the course of a 

 very {q\v days. The species lingered on into September, until it 

 seemed that our approaching winter killed them off; and if the species 

 regularly hybernated here, out of the many thousands in our south- 

 eastern counties a few must have survived and appeared the following 

 spring. But they did not, neither do I know of any actual record of 

 such a fact, hence my editorial note, which I still consider quite 

 correct. — J. W. Tutt. March, 1891. 



NoTODONTA TRiLOPHUS, ETC., AS ScoTCH INSECTS. — It may interest 

 some of the (now many) beginners in Scotland to know that about 

 the year 1850 the late Mr. E. C. Buxton had a lot of Demas coryli and 

 Notodonta ziczac sent him for about twopence each. Among the latter 

 there was a big one which turne 1 out to be trilophus. Mr. Buxton 

 told me at the time about it. He also used to get plenty of Lobophora 

 hexapterata off the white poplars, at the place where he used to go 

 salmon fishing in May. Boarmia cinctaria also occurred at the same 

 place. It may also interest some of the Glasgow collectors to know 

 that I saw a very fine specimen of lapidata in a collection, captured 

 near Glasgow, when in Scotland two years ago. — J. B. Hodgkinson, 

 Ashton-on-Ribble. March, i8qi. 



