PRAOTIOAI, niNTS. 293 



Jul}' 24:th, 1893 ; last full-fed August 16th (I have no record as to when 

 theirs/ was full-fed) ; imagines emerged August 24th to September 1st, 

 Period from egg to imago 31 days. — Louis B. Prout, 12, Greenwood 

 Road, Dalston, N.E. October 18th, 1893. 



Practical hints. 



The Month. — During this month, if the Aveather be mild, the later 

 species may still be caught at light, such as Pcecilocampa popidi, Himera 

 pennaria, &c. but the collection of imagines is now getting over for the 

 season. The " Chestnuts," however, may still be taken at ivy, so also 

 may Xylina socia and semibnmnea, the latter now a rare species, eggs 

 being much wanted by some of our leading lepidoi^terists. 0. erythro- 

 cephala should now be sought for. It has been much offered in 

 exchange from Kent during the last few years, Init no captures are ever 

 recorded. The birch woods should be carefully worked for Cheimatohia 

 horeata and Hi/bernia aurantiaria. DaKj/campa rubiginea, like Orrhodia 

 erythrocephala, is more especially a November species and occurs both 

 at sugar and ivy bloom. 



Pupa-digging should be jiersisted in. Isolated trees generally pay 

 best, l)ecause the larva? cannot spread so much as they do where the 

 trees are closer together. Some dozens of common Tcemocampice are 

 frequently obtained, from which beautiful series of varieties are bred. 

 The rare Notodonts are all to be found in the little angles at the base 

 of the trunk where it meets the ground. Ash trees should be carefully 

 felt over with the hand, and the hard knobbly cocoons of Bisulcia 

 ligtistri carefully cut out from iinder the moss. Holes in the trunks of 

 elm trees, where dirt and decaying leaves have collected, are almost 

 sure to produce pupa? of Smerinthns tilke. — J. P, Mutch. 



Amusement for Winter Evenings. — Any entomologist who is sub- 

 ject to fits of the "l)lues" cannot do better than provide himself against 

 such times with a copy of The Hisfori/ of our British Butterflies, by Mr. 

 C. W. Dale, F.E.S. of Glanville's Wooton. In it he will find much 

 mirth-moving matter, as well as a very interesting series of extracts 

 from the works of early English entomologists relating to our indigenous 

 species. A couj^le of samples of Mr. Dale's humour may enforce this 

 recommendation. They are selected from his attempts to indicate the 

 derivation of the Latin names. The first relates to epiphron, and is 

 as follows : " Epiphron, perhaps a grammatical error for Ephron, a 

 Hittite, who sold to Aljraham a plot of land to bury his wife in. 

 Ephron is a Hebrew word signifying dust" (p. 110), The other 

 relates to Nisoniades, a name first applied by Hiibner in his Verzeichniss 

 to a genus which includes tages. The derivation of this word has 

 ])affled Mr. Dale, and in the corrigenda at the end of the book he makes 

 this suggestion concerning it, " perhaps an error for Bisoniades, re- 

 sembling a bison, given in allusion to the shaggy and heavy appeai'ance 

 of the species." — F. J. Buckell, 32, Canonbury Square, London, N. 



I would add another good joke to the above, culled from the same 

 work. The eggs of the species of Vanessa as might be expected are 

 veiy much alike, especially those of V. nrticce {imd V.polychJoros. Sepp, 

 about 130 years ago, gave a figure of the egg of V. polychloros, which 

 either Ijelonged to another species, or, as Dr. Chapman has since 



