NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 285 



success. Common species were not scarce, but sugar had little 

 attraction until the repeated thunderstorms had washed the sweetness 

 out of the blossoms of the marram grass, and then moths came in 

 hundreds. However, it was then too late for me, and except Agrotis 

 saucia, of which I took a good if not a long series, the attendance was 

 more remarkable for quantity than quality. Commoners like Noctua 

 rubi, N. c-ni^riim, Agrotis suffusa, A. valiigera, A. piita, A. segetum and 

 Hydra'cia nictitans were in abundance. Cerigo cytherea was not un 

 common but, as usual, terribly dilapidated. I suppose they hide among 

 the marram and other grasses in the daytime. Colias edusa was 

 common in the daytime all over the downs and the fields, and did not 

 confine itself to clover fields. I got several good varieties of the ? , 

 including one with quite spotless margin, but two var. helice and one 

 C. hyale were all I saw or caught. Of the better species Crambus 

 conta/nifie//ics, a nice series, O. de?i/alis, bred from the Eihium, Lithosia 

 viuscerda (3), Campiograinma fluviata (i), Mamestra abjecta (i) and 

 Melissoblaptes anella (a few) were perhaps the best. I took a few 

 Calamia phragmitidis, Apamea ophiogmmma, Collix sparsata, etc., 

 but the wind made collecting Tortrices out of the question. Since 

 my return I have devoted most of my spare time to larva hunting, and 

 I have found larvae more common than last season, although 1891 

 was supposed to be good in this respect. I was fortunate enough to 

 get about a dozen Asphalia fluctuosa one day by hard beating, with a 

 varied collection off the birch. Geometra vernaria is now common by 

 beating Clematis, and will be worth collecting for about three weeks 

 longer. I took nearly fifty on Saturday afternoon with a few Pliibala- 

 pteryx vitalbata, Eupithecia coronata, etc. With regard to the foodplant 

 of Cidaria silaceata, it is the little Epilobium moritanum, which is a very 

 common weed and grows in woods, woodsides, lanes, along ditches, 

 etc., on which the larva feeds. I have never been able to get the larva 

 to eat any other species of Epilobium although I have taken the moth 

 among E. atigustifolium, but if supplied with E. montanum it is one of 

 the very easiest of Geometers to rear. As Dr. Riding very correctly 

 remarks it is double-brooded invariably in the south. I have had a 

 great number of larvae feeding this year, mostly bred from ova, and 

 the position of the larvae when at rest is well worthy of record. I have 

 now about 100 larvae of Notodonta dictcea feeding, and find their 

 position at rest on the petiole of the poplar leaf is extremely charac- 

 teristic. I heard a few days ago that a Pliisia moneta was taken in a 

 garden at Dartford this year flying round the monkshood growing 

 there. If this plant were cultivated more in our gardens I daresay we 

 should find the insect common enough. It has evidently established 

 itself in this country. — C. Fenn. September 22?id, 1892. 



Devonshire. — In south-east Devon, insects have been fairly abundant 

 this summer, the commoner Fritillaries, Argynnis euphrosyne, aglaia, 

 paphia, adippe, sporting themselves freely on tlie slopes and in the 

 openings of the woods of the higher grounds ; Thecla querais and riibi 

 have been local, but numerous ; T. be/iihe, scarce. Colias edusa has been 

 flying in most parts, but I noticed only two of the pale varieties, and 

 failed to take either. Among the rarer Ceometers taken, were two 

 Macaria alternata, both males, one at night and the other flying at 

 dusk, early in June. My son netted several Lobophora sexalisata, but 



