NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 63 



willow. The Lombardy poplar is only in bud still. I should be glad 

 of any suggestions. — W. F. de V. Kane, Sloperton Lodge, Kingstown, 

 Ireland. Alay, 1891. \^q.^ E at. Record, vol. i., pp. 185 and 260. — Ed.] 



Ruthin, N. Wales. — Weather very cold here, though I suppose some 

 of the early species must be out. I visited the Agrofis ashworthii 

 locality on March 26th, but all appearances point to a much later season 

 than last. Larvae of A. aslnvorthii, A. lucernea and Gnophos obsciirata 

 ought to have been found, but apparently they have not yet left their 

 winter retreats for I did not see one. Coming home over More 

 Famman, at a height of nearly 1000 feet, I found a Larentia 

 muKistrtgaria, clinging to the stones in the middle of the road, and 

 almost blown away by the gale. — J. E, R. Allen. March 2Zth, 1891. 



Darlington. — We are having very stormy weather, in fact there is no 

 staying out of doors at all, I should say some of the hybernating larvae 

 must have suffered, as they were beginning to- show up in February, 

 which was a very fine month here, and I thought I was going to get an 

 early start, but shall now be later than usual. — Wm. Milburn. 

 April \th, i8gi. 



Elgin. — In the North of Scotland, March and the early part of April 

 have been very stormy with strong east winds and hard frost at night, 

 now we are getting bright sunshine, but the frost continues, and in 

 consequence everything is very late. I have been working the sallows 

 in the neighbourhood of Forres and Elgin ; Tieniocampa gothica, stabilis, 

 instabilis and several other species were fairly common, but generally 

 much worn. I expect the sallows in Morayshire will be a total failure 

 this year owing to the frost having spoiled the catkins. Retinia resinana 

 is widely distributed in Morayshire, and often abundant. Mr. Abel, 

 of Elgin, kindly pointed out a locality for it within a few miles of that 

 town, where it is distributed over a wide area, and is not rare. I have 

 also found it in nearly every plantation of young Scotch firs which I 

 have visited. The insect is in the pupal stage just now. Micros are 

 not scarce. — Wm. Reid. April 22nd, 1891. 



Newbury. — The wonderful change in the weather (to sudden and 

 extreme heat) is bringing out numbers of insects in my forcing-house. 

 Eupithecia, pulchellata comes out every day by threes and fours, and at 

 present only one has been anything but perfect. Macroglossa fucifonnis, 

 Scotosia undulata, Snierinthus ocellatus and Euplexia lucipara have also 

 emerged this week, and I have taken a few common insects in the 

 moth-trap, and one Cidaria silaceata on May 4th, which seems early. — 

 M. KiMBER. May \\th, 1891. 



CucuLLL'^ scrophularitE AS A BRITISH Insect, — This species is 

 undoubtedly British, although I notice that Mr. Dale doubts its being 

 so. I am afraid that doubt is often thrown on our rare species being 

 indigenous, because the writer has been collecting many years and has 

 not happened to find the species. C. scrophularicB has been erroneously 

 recorded dozens of times, without doubt, by those who have found 

 C. verbasci feeding on Scrophularia, but the larva of C. scrophularice is 

 very different. Its usual food appears to be S. nodosa and not S. 

 aquatica, although C. verbasci feeds on both these plants. In 1889, 

 whilst collecting in Kent, I picked up six strange larvae not at all like 

 verbasci, being much stumpier and less strongly marked, near a well 

 eaten plant of S. nodosa. These pupated at once and whilst three 



