NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 263 



about here during the autumn, nearly 200 having been taken by the 

 members of "The Penarth Entomological and Natural History 

 Society," several of the var. helice having been met with. Of fifty C. edusa 

 that I have taken, twenty-one are females, many in magnificent con- 

 dition, with a rich glossy appearance on the dark portions of the wings. 

 The Vanesscz — io, atalanta, urticce and cardui, have simply been 

 swarming, and many of them have been of large size. Atalanta is 

 still on the wing, as also is urtiae. Grapta c-album has turned up 

 again in this neighbourhood, Mr. Howe having caught one, and seen 

 several about September i8th. I have had the pleasure of witnessing 

 the emergence of the second generation of Arctia fuliginosa from the 

 female I took on Barry Island, on May 14th. The first imagines I had 

 from the ova laid by this female, began to emerge on July i6th; on 

 the 22nd a couple paired, and the female began laying ova on the 

 24th. These hatched on the 3rst. The larvae fed up well on dock 

 leaves, and commenced spinning about August 28th, the first imago 

 emerging September i8th, another on the 23rd, another on the 24th, 

 and so on. Of this batch I have had about twelve imagines so far, and 

 one female has laid a few ova. I must say I have kept them indoors, 

 and probably that may be the reason of the second batch of imagines, 

 which have thus made three broods in the year. — G. A. Birkenhead, 

 Downs View, Penarth, near Cardiff. October Wi, 1892. 



Newbury. — This season is undoubtedly a good one. Here, and at 

 Marlborough, luck was good just at the end of July. It is curious, 

 though, how sugar continues to fail with us. Even this year, many 

 nights have been almost blanks, and just now nothing comes at all, 

 except slugs and belated wasps. Luperina cespitis is fairly common in 

 the trap, and Melanippe unangulata has turned up everywhere. I 

 have a great number of the larv^ feeding now on chickweed, they 

 grow very quickly. I have a brood of Cidaria silaceata, but find they 

 will not touch Epilobiiun hirsutuin. They eat E. montanum greedily. 

 A batch of Noctua depuncta larvie, which hatched from eggs laid by a 

 captured female, behave most curiously. They seem to refuse food of 

 all kinds, and yet they live. They have been hatched more than a 

 fortnight now, and though they have not grown in the least, they 

 appear to be very healthy. They like to creep into the florets of 

 clover heads and hide there, sometimes four larvse squeeze into one 

 floret ! I have put them out of doors now, among various low-growing 

 plants, but as they behave so curiously, I rather doubt if any will 

 survive the winter. — Mary Kimber. September ()th, 1892. 



Epping, Southend, etc. — On May 2 9tli, Tephrosia biundularia was 

 swarming in, to me, a quite unprecedented manner in Epping Forest, 

 on the trunks of oak and hornbeam, there was scarcely a tree without 

 one specimen on it, and sometimes there were several on the same 

 tree. I saw no variation from the form I am accustomed to take in 

 this locality. Amphidasys betuiaria, of which a series has been bred 

 from ova obtained last year, emerged almost uniformly in the late 

 evening, differing, in this respect, from its congener, Amphidasys 

 siralaria and Biston hirtaria, which emerge generally in the forenoon. 

 Colias edusa was observed on June 6th in the neighbourhood of 

 St. Albans, and has been plentiful recently in and about the Lea 

 Valley. Sugar, from the third week in June to the third week in July, 



