298 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S UECORD. 



Acjrot/'s ravida. Kagwort lias been fairly })roductive uf uommon thing.s, 

 and^. vaUigera, -which, had been quite rare for a few years, was almost 

 as common as A. tritici. Can anyone tell me how to distinguish the 



larvffi of these ? I cannot separate them." Dr. Corbett (Doncaster) 



writes on September 6th : — " The season here continues to be bad, but 

 a few good things have turned up, among which are Sdaphila dnuana 

 and Scoparia basintr/'galifi. The latter species was fairly common at 

 Edlington in July. I have not seen one really good sugar night so 

 far, but things are improving. Latterly, a few specimens of Cosniia 



jxilfdcca have come to the sweets." Mr. Vivian (Taibach) writes 



on September 8th : — " Here, at Sligo. I have taken a fair number of 

 Agrofis cursor /'a and A. tritici on the ragwort tlowers, with a few 

 A. praecox. A few Stilhla anoiiKiIa were captured flying over the 

 heath at dusk and coming to light. At light also, on the heath, I 



captured A. tritici, A. luccmea and Epnndahdtdenta.'' Mr. Whittle 



(Southend) writes on September 10th : — " Sugar is just now fairly 

 productive in this neighbourhood. Noctna c-nigrum is the insect most 

 strongly represented. In my line of sugar there is a solitary ash, on 

 which I took, last Thursday, a fine Clrrhoedin xerampdina. Under 

 the same tree, on Friday, I found on a grass culm a beautiful example 

 of the same species, evidently only recently emerged ; also Dcpressaria 

 alstrdvicriella. Noiiiophila noctnella is absent apparently, although it 

 swarmed here last year. I have seen two specimens of Coliaa ediisn, 

 one of which I captured. A good supply of Phorodcsma .sinaragdario. 

 Iarv;e have also been obtained by careful searching. My hunting 

 ground for this species comprises about a mile of saltings. This year, 

 the larvi\3 occurred on the same three clumps of Artemisia viaritima on 

 which 1 found them last year ; one of these yielded five-sixths or more 

 of the larvaj taken, the proportion of larvae to each clump being much 

 as last year. I should say, from my experience, that it is a truly 

 conservative larva. The most striking species which I have taken 

 since the 2Sth of July, are : — Cramhus selasellus, MijeJophila crihreUa, 

 Fctnifthila Jineola, Goucpderijx rhcimni, Mclanippe sociata, Catoplrin 

 iripoJiana, C. candididana, Lita ohsoletclla (?), Agdistis bennetii, I'yiipithecid 

 oblongata, E. subfidvata, AspHates ocJircaria, Acidnlia. snbserlceata (very 

 late. — Ed.), Cataclysta lemnata, ConcltijJis francillana, Agrotis ;/j)silon, 

 Depressaria yeatiana. At light the following appeared : — Lupcrlmt, 

 testacca (very common), K. oblongata, N. c-uigriun, Scopida fcrrng<dis, 

 Endutricha flaiame<dis, Notodonta dictaeoides, Pionca forjicalis, Aspilatcs 

 ochrearia, Crambus geniculens, E. subfidvata. At sugar : — Agrotis ypsilon, 

 Flmia gamma, Phlogopliora laeticulosa, Calymnia diffinis, Noctna c-nigrum, 

 Amphipyra tragopogonis, Acronycta rumicis, Depressaria applana, Agrotis 



pida, Pterophorus monodactyJus and Metrocampa niargaritaria." 



Mr. N. M. Kichardson (Weymouth) writes on September 11th: — "I 

 am glad to say that I have not found the season so exceedingly bad as 

 some of the members of this basket, though I have not been able to do 

 a great deal of collecting. I think, however, that the season at 

 Portland is not always influenced by the causes which affect it 

 elsewhere, possibly from its isolated position. In some respects 

 Portland has suffered this year ; for instance, Agrotis Innigera, which 

 is generally pretty common, has been almost absent. On the other 

 hand it has been a good year for xl. pyropltda, which varies exceed- 

 ingly in its appearance, and an average one for A. luccmea.'" Mr. 



