SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 37 



Date of Emergence : — Dealing with the date of emergence, Mr. Holland 

 records captures in 1891 (Eat. Record), extending over a period of two 

 months — from the " middle of May to middle July," — and last year 

 {Eat. Mo. Mag.) on dates from May 12th to July 6th (the date of 

 writing). Our first captures were made during the first week in June ; 

 the last, during the first week in July. Djuble-hroodedaess : — This is, 

 I think, the proper place to mention another habit of the species — a 

 tendency to double-broodedness. In the " Current Notes " (Eat. 

 Record, ii., 277), " an extensive partial double-brood " is mentioned as 

 having occurred at Eeading in October, 1892, the last specimen being cap- 

 tured on 6th November. " Last year," quoting Mr. Holland once more, 

 " several moths emerged in the pupa-box out of doors, in October and 

 November last ; and the Rev. Bernard Smith informs me that he also 

 had some emerge about the same time from eggs I sent him, this 

 being the first time he has ever had fagi emerge in the autumn." 

 Mr. Holland did not find any specimens of the second brood in the 

 woods last year, but he says the weather was not often fit, and he was 

 unable to go when it was. In November, when it became warmer, shootino- 

 was going on at Reading. We bred one specimen on December 2nd, and 

 another on December 10th (the latter being a cripple) from eggs laid 

 in June last. Both were ? 's. The pupaj were kept in a cold room in 

 company with a good many spring pupa?, but no other species emerged. 

 Distribution: — Fagi appears to be taken in a gTeat many localities in the 

 south and south-west of England, and Mr. Tutt informs me that it 

 occurs in the beech- woods round Cuxton in Kent ; Plymouth appears 

 to be the most westerly place mentioned. As we go northwards, into 

 the Midlands, records get fewer, Worcester and Sherwood Forest 

 (Morris) and Wyre Forest (Eat. Record, iii., 192) being the only ones 

 I have noticed. Dr. Buckell tells me that the only person who has 

 recorded fagi within our area is Mr. Sheldon, who mentioned it as rare 

 at Shirley. The " light " records, it will have been noticed, have 

 included Dulwich, Clapham Common and Ui)per Clapton (?). Mr. J. A. 

 Edwards speaks of the capture of a ? on July 7th, 1869 (Entomologist, 

 1869) on palings in Richmond Park, and there is a capture noted in 

 the Zoologist (p. 1043) on June 17th, 1815, at Hammersmith. On the 

 Continent, Dr. Staudinger gives us localities : " Central Europe, Southern 

 Sweden, Livonia, Catalonia, Piedmont, Corsica, Bulgaria, Ural, Armenia." 

 Godart says it is found commonly in Touraine and the north of France, 

 but that it is rare in the neighljourhood of Paris. Popular Name : — Before 

 mentioning a few of the descriptions etc., of this species seems a 

 fitting place to show the origin of the popular name of the insect " The 

 Lobster Moth." Albin {A Natural History of English Insects, by 

 Eleazar Albin) in 1724 figures the larva which, he says, " was taken 

 on the hasle (hazel) in Norwood, near Dulwich, the 9th August. It 

 was of a brownish orange colour. I have drawn it both in its movino- 

 and standing posture, the better to express its odd shape and manner 

 from its look, which has some resemblance of a crustaceous fish, for 

 which reason I have given it the name of the " Lobster " caterpillar. It 

 was kept in a box with some of the branches of the hasle set in bottles 

 with earth under them to facilitate its change, but I did not perceive it 

 to eat. It spun itself up the 13th of the same month between the 

 bottles, and died without changing." Dr. Buckell, who was so kind as 

 to give me this extract, tells me that the figures are very good, except 



