66 THE entomologist's record. 



One spun his silly self to the gauze of the bag in which I had sleeved 

 them for the winter, a course of action which I knew to be dangerous 

 and meant to prevent, but he did it in the night, and an earwig was up 

 earlier than I, and ate him or sucked him through the gauze. I expect 

 one reason why larvse sleeved out for the winter have done so well is 

 that the frost kept off the earwigs and woodlice, who burrow into 

 anything and have the most marvellous trick of finding out where one's 

 sleeves are. I always inspect mine every morning through the autumn. 

 I expect one ought to doctor the stem of the branch below to keep these 

 visitors off. — G. M. A. Hevvett. March 26///, 1891. 



NocTUA SOBRINA. — I begin to take the larvae about the end of April, 

 they are very small at that time. I do not know whether the larvae 

 hybernate or if the ova lie over all the winter. I am inclined to think 

 it is the latter (I may be wrong), because, had they hybernated, the 

 larvae must, I think, have been much larger. Last year, about the end 

 of April, I began to sweep for them, when I took some that seemed 

 newly hatched, while a few others were in their first moult. I swept 

 once or twice every week from that time until about the first week in June, 

 when they begin to get rather scarce, but the last night I went out, 

 Saturday, June 7th, I took four larvae full fed. Last season, I took in 

 all about six or seven dozen larvae, and out of those barely a score of 

 imagines emerged, the rest were stung. The first emerged in the last 

 week of July, the last in the second week of August. The ichneumon 

 did not emerge at the same time but much later. The larvae feed on 

 bilberry only, at least that is the foodplant here, although heath and 

 various grasses are growing amongst it. — J. Wylie, 12, Union Street 

 Lane, Bridgend, Perth. February 20th, 1891. 



A good many years ago, when N.sobrinavia.snoi so common as it is now, 

 I investigated its life-history to a certain extent, and what I know about 

 it is as follows : — The eggs laid in August, hatch the same season, and 

 the larvjE hybernate small, feeding up in the spring. The larva is very 

 similar (speaking from memory) to A^. brunnea, N. ditrapeziiun and 

 their congeners, but, if I recollect rightly, duller and greyer. Its proper 

 food I believe to be Vacciuiuin, but I daresay it is not very particular. It 

 was common enough in the Black Wood at Rannoch. It feeds at night. 

 — C. Fenn, Lee. January, 1891. 



Uncertain appearance of certain Lepidoptera. — Mr. Reid (vol. i., 

 p. 341) mentions the disappearance oi Epunda hitulenta from his neigh- 

 bourhood about 1875 or 1876. Singularly enough we lost this moth here 

 about the same time. In 1875 it was plentiful here, and for years before 

 — in fact it was a species of which we always depended on getting enough. 

 In 1876 not one was to be found, and, although the place was tried every 

 year, I never saw a specimen there again till 1889, when two appeared 

 at the old spot. In 1890 their numbers had increased, and now I hope 

 we may have them with us again for a time. In 187 1, and before that, 

 Epmida vimitiaiis was a common thing in a wood near me. In 1872 

 they were absent, and I never got another at the place till 1888, when 

 they suddenly appeared again in abundance. I used to get plenty of 

 Agroiis tritici here till 1877, when they became scarce for a time, but in 

 1882 and 1883 they turned out again as common as before. Since 

 those two years, however, it is unusual to get one here. Many other 

 species I have seen plentiful for a time, then scarce, and then become 



