226 THE ENTOMOLOGISTS RKCORD. 



must also take a strong and sharp knife to cut off the Typha stems, a 

 bag to put them into when cut ; and a strong plank, for crossing dykes 

 and more than usualh bottomless bogs, is also very useful. First to 

 find the foodplant. Strong beds by the edges of rivers or broads do 

 not seem of much use ; straggling or overgrown patches in small ponds 

 in the bog are more likely. Typha latifolia is the favourite, but where 

 small patches of it are surrounded by T, angustifolia beds, the latter 

 may produce a goodly number. Plants with the two inmost leaves 

 fading and yellow should be chosen, though if the larva has but lately 

 entered a fresh stem the leaves will be scarcely affected, and many 

 healthy-looking plants, especially with latifolia, may produce a larva, 

 the hole where it has entered will often serve as a guide to inhabited 

 stems. In searching latifolia it is best to take one central leaf in each 

 hand and gently pull them apart when the pupa, or larva, will be seen, 

 if there, by looking down the hole thus opened ; but in angustifolia the 

 leaves wrap round one another more and cannot be opened from the 

 centre, so the outer leaves should be peeled off till one be found 

 marked with a round semi-transparent spot like a black bruise on the 

 leaf, which is caused by the hole eaten almost through the leaf by the 

 larva before pupating for emergence. The tip of the knife may be 

 carefully inserted, and the thin piece readily removed, to make sure the 

 owner is within. The stem should be cut off some six inches below 

 this hole. Naturally a great many N. typhcB are found at the same 

 time, but they are very easy to distinguish. The larva of cannce is 

 green, and its frass, when fresh, is green, and when dry, nearly white, 

 and has at all times a curious transparent and glutinous appearance ; 

 the hole for emergence is very circular, and the central leaves are spun 

 together with silk just above it ; the larva pupates head upwards, and 

 the pupte has a very distinct beak, enclosing the palpi, pointing 

 upwards. The larva of typlice is pinkish brown, and the frass is a 

 warm sienna brown ; there is generally a mass of it at the top above 

 the pupa, the first thing that meets one's eye when pulling apart the 

 central leaves ; the emergence hole is of irregular shape, and of course 

 beneath the pupa, as typhcB pupates head downwards ; the beak is not 

 nearly so large as in cannce, and stands out at a right angle from the 

 pupa. The best treatment for the pupae is to stick the lower end of the 

 cut stems containing them in wet sand in flowerpots, and stand them in a 

 large box with plenty of ventilation, and water them freely every day, to 

 keep the stems from drying, in which case they often shrink and crush 

 the pupje. The larvae should be treated in the same manner, and if 

 they crawl out of their old stems, fresh green ones must be provided 

 for them, and they will rapidly eat their way in. Mine began to 

 emerge on August 23rd, and continued up to September 12th. The 

 imagines show great variation of colour from a light buff, generally 

 found in the females, and no doubt protective as resembling dried 

 leaves of the typ/ia, through warm reds to a dark leaden brown, but 

 these dark forms are not frequent. — E. AuGusrus Bowles, Myddelton 

 House, Waltham Cross, Herts. September 25//;, 189 1. 



Reading. — At Reading, moths have been much more plentiful this 

 summer than they have been for some years, but butterflies scarce. I 

 have taken Hypenodes albistrigalis and Acidalia straminata here for 

 the first time. H. albistrigalis, by stirring the brambles in the beech 



