NOTES ON (JOLLECTtNG, ETC, ll7 



still in the })upa state ; in fact, I have a few (juite small larva^ trying 

 to hil)ernate in a cold room, but these do not appear to thrive, and 

 prol)aldy must of tliem perish in our winters in a state of natiire. It 

 seems ])rol)al)le that saucia may have emigrated to our shores, along 

 with Cohm edusa and the other migrants who favoured us during the 

 past year, and from the ova laid by these in the early part of the season 

 sjirang the brood of saucia which was so widely distributed last autumn. 

 At all events, the indigenous saucia, if there were any, may have been 

 largely recruited in this way. There was a considerable range of 

 variation among those which first emerged, while those which came out 

 during January and February were mostly of the reddish form. I was 

 inclined from this to think that it was the interpolated Ijrood, as with 

 some uther sjiecies, that was most lialjle to variation, and that the red- 

 dish form was the constant spring form and type of the insect, which 

 superseded the others as the conditions more approximated those of an 

 early spring In-ood. I have, however, quite recently Ijred some speci- 

 mens of a greyish form, and in all probability the variation is largely 

 controlled by heredity. Unfortunately the females from which the ova 

 were obtained were all worn, and, had they been fresh, I should have 

 lieen ignorant of the coloration of the males. It would be interesting 

 to know whether saiict'a is often taken in this country in the early part 

 of the season, and what is the form usually found at that period. — 

 Wm. Edward Nicholson, Lewes. February 27th, 1893. 



Some years ago, Mr. Nicholson was good enough to send me a dozen 

 eggs of A. saucia. These fed throughout the winter on dock, Init after 

 they were about half-an-inch long I never saw them as they went below 

 the sand by day and fed only at night. I was very busy at the time, 

 and finding, in March, that they did not eat the dock, I took it for 

 granted that they were all dead (as I did not expect a spring brood), 

 and left them in the greenhovisc uncovered. About a month afterwards 

 my friends Messrs. Porritt and Tugwell turned up at my house, and, 

 tt-lling tliem the history of my saucia, the latter gentleman remarked, 

 " I'll tie them up, you'll get an early brood out I" He tied a piece of 

 muslin over the flower pot, and sure enough the following week I bred 

 and set 13 moths. This was in May. Mr. Nicholson's dozen eggs had 

 been a baker's dozen (13), and I had bred the lot ! They were all, 

 without exception, of the red form. — J. W. Tutt. 



CoLiAs p:dusa in Notts. — In September last, on the old Koman 

 Fosse Eoad near Cotgrave, I took half-a-dozen fine specimens of edusa, 

 one of which — a female — has the wings suffused with a beautiful pink 

 most noticeable on the under side. A few days previously I netted one 

 on a sunflower in the garden, which proved to be a very small male, 

 much lighter in the ground tint than usual. The sj^ecimen was quite 

 fresh, and had evident^ been reared in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 I may add that sunflowers seem very attractive to all kinds of lepidop- 

 tera, especially Vanessa atalanta, Avliich was exceptionally abundant 

 with us last season ; and I have counted as many as four at once sun- 

 ning themselves on the same flower-heap. — A. E. Leivers, Clinton 

 House, Sherwood Kise, Nottingham. 



Spring Notes. — In Epping Forest, on the 12tli of March, I found 

 riiigalia pedaria and Amphidasys prodromaria ; Nyssia hispidaria has 

 been very common ; Brephos pjartlienias was out amongst the birches, 

 and Asphalia Jiavicornis has appeared. The sallows are now beginning 



