342 THE entomologist's record. 



warginepunctata and Engonia fnscavtaria . To take moths at light I used 

 one of Watkins and Doncaster's lamp nets — a useful addition to the 

 api^aratus of any collector who pays attention to the lepidoptera of 

 street lamps. In October, Chesias spartiata was taken at rest ; Euholia 

 cervinata and Himera pennaria at light, and Scopelosoma satellitia, (krastis 

 vaccina and spadiceo, Depressaria subpjropinqnella and Oporahia dihitata 

 at sugar. The only new visitors at sugar in November were Chematobia 

 hrnmata and Calocampa exolcta. — F. G. Whittle, 5, Princes Street, 

 E.G. December 2nd, 1893. 



East Devon. — A glance back at the season of 1893 may show a 

 few points worth noting, due to its continuous mild temperature 

 and unusual dryness, which brought us here nearly to a water famine. 

 Many sallows were in full bloom by the first week of March and were 

 almost all over by the end of the month, but the Tieniocampa' and other 

 early moths were, for the most jjart, only out in breeding cages, so our 

 sallow captures were jjoor and my best insect was a hybeniated Xylina 

 socia. The May insects I was breeding, such as Epione advenaria, 

 Ephyra porata, Cldaria sllaceata, E. omicronaria, Smerinthus tilta', ike, 

 emerged in March and the beginning of April, and many of the 

 summer and early autumn insects were ante-dated by five or six 

 weeks, so that their freshness was gone when taken on the wing. 

 Eggs, too, hatched early, and the young larvas of Dasycanrpa rnb/'ginea, 

 Xanthia atirago, and othei's came out in the middle of March instead 

 of waiting till the end of Ajjril or May. Searching at night in the 

 lanes and hedges gave us larva3 of the usual common Noctuje, several nice 

 varieties of N. f estiva being bred later on, and best of all, two fine var. 

 conversaria of Boarmia repandata from larva3 feeding on hawthorn. 

 During May large numbers of larvte were beaten out in the day time, 

 especially from the oaks, some of the best being those of Asphalia 

 ridens, which occurred in several different places, showing it to be well 

 established here. A few wet days set in at the end of May (the last 

 for a long spell) and scarcely any of the early larva? ^vere to ];)e taken 

 afterwards. About the middle of March, Amphidasys strataria came 

 out in the breeding cages, one being a female ; with her I tried 

 " assembling," and before 9 p.m. a number of males were fluttering 

 about the cage suspended from the branch of an oak in an open spot. 

 Within half an hour I had boxed between 20 and 30 fine and some- 

 what variable males and could have taken many more had I been 

 disposed. Is not this sudden appearance in large numbers of insects 

 otherwise unnoticed very curious ? Does it not give us a hint that 

 when we speak of certain species as being rare or even extinct, it is often 

 a mistake, and shows rather that our methods of searching and 

 attraction are at fault ? Though on the look out for strataria for three 

 years in the usual way, I never found one till my son dug up a iew 

 13upa3 last autumn, and it is only through his so doing that I am able to say 

 that the insect breeds here abmidantly. There is such an amount of 

 foliage and vegetation of all kinds in Devonshire, that it must afford an 

 immense area for the breeding and shelter of insects, and I cannot but 

 think that it is probably owing to this that I and others have thought 

 insects scarce, certainly we very rarely make large bags of anything. 

 Late in April and early in May, Leucophasia sinap>is was met with 

 abundantly in its morning flight, between 10 and 12 a.m., along many 

 of the hedges, and Argynnis cuphrosyne, A. selcnc, Theclarubi, Nisoniades 



