SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 219 



aphides, and under those conditions I once, in rather open country, 

 with neither trees nor hedges very close though at no great distance, 

 drove through a flight, out of which numbers settled on the coats of 

 all our party. This superstition is referred to by Mr. Tlieodore Wood, 

 in The Farmer's Friends and Foes, p. 66 (1888), where in the course of 

 his explanation he says :— " The easterly wind, acting upon the young 

 and tender plants tenanted Ijy the progenitors of the swarm, has 

 checked their growth and rendered their sap unhealthy. Wing-bearing 

 young have been immediately produced, borne along by the self-same 

 wind which caused its appearance, and deposited in more or less distant 

 localities, and so the easterly wind has really " brought the blight," al- 

 though not at the time or in the manner usually supposed by the farmer. 

 Thus it is, that easterly winds in the early part of the year damage 

 vegetation so extensively, not only by checking and weakening the young 

 and delicate plants, but by bringing a host of mischievous creatures 

 to feed upon them while still in an unhealthy and debilitated condition." 

 He adds : " Aphides migrate merely by rising from their food-plants 

 and allowing the wind to carry them whithersoever it will ; and in no 

 other manner can they possibly travel to any appreciable distance." 

 Surely the latter part of Mr. Johnson's note refers to this same pheno- 

 menon, for if in place of the word " grubs " in his informant's narrative, 

 we substitute " winged aphides," we have a passable account of what 

 actually happens. — Eustace E. Bankes, The Kectory, Corfe Castle, 

 Dorset. July lUh, 1894. 



Note on the distribution of Tinea nigripunctella. — In his 

 restmw {ante, p. 73) of a paper on certain Micro-lepidoptera, by Lord 

 Walsingham, in the Ent. Mo. Ma(j. for March last, Mr. Tutt says : — 

 " Tinea niyrijniiideUa, taken by Mr. Atmore at King's Lynn, found 

 hitherto in Britain, only at Bristol and Folkestone. " The words that I 

 have emphasized by italics are not used by Lord Walsingham, who 

 merely says "a species of rare occurrence, formerly taken near Bristol," 

 and are — Mr. Tutt will, I know well, forgive me for saying so— certainly 

 erroneous, for T. nigripunctella has already been recorded from five 

 localities in this county (Proc. Dorset N. H. and A. F. C, vi., p. 166 

 (1885); Entom., xix., p. 120 (1886) ; Lep. of Dorsetshire, p. 48 (1886); 

 Entom., xxvi., p. 88 (1893), and from one locality in Sussex (Trans. 

 Chichester and W. Sussex N. H. Soc, No. 5, 1886). In three of these 

 six localities it, to my knowledge, occurs regidarly though sjmringly, and 

 it is highly probable that it would be found in many other parts of the 

 country, if carefully searched for at the right time in old out-houses, 

 stables, &c. In such places, it may be found sitting about on the walls, 

 reminding one strongly of a Gracillaria by its attitude, and may be 

 readily boxed, for although it shows, by waving about its extremely 

 long antennte, that it is well aware of one's approach, it does not, ac- 

 cording to my experience, see fit to take any steps to avoid capture. — 

 Eustace E. Bankes, The Eectory, Corfe Castle, Dorset. Jtdy llth, 

 1894. [We are much obliged to Mr. Bankes for this correction. Ed.]. 



Further notes on Euculoe hesperidis. — Out of twenty-two males 

 of E. cardainines, taken by myself in Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Shro2)shire, 

 and Montgomeryshire, which range in size from Vji^-in. to l^^/ig-in., 

 not a single specimen exhibits the discoidal spot in any position other 

 than well within the orange " tip." On the other hand, out of seven 

 males of the insect which I call E. hesperidis, which vary in expanse 



