210 Tiir: kntomoi.ogist's record. 



warm room. In March, the larva began to crawl restlessly about 

 in the cage and, as the ordinary food was not then available, Herr 

 Rauwald was obliged to buy a rose-bush, on the leaves ot which it fed 

 until elder, &c., were once more available. He remarks that the 

 resulting imago was a good one, " although somewhat costly.'' 



We understand that the fine collection of Micro-Lepidoptera made 

 by the late Mr. Macliin is to be brought to the hammer on May 28th 



Iractical hints. 



On rearing the larv.e of T.bniocampa miniosa. — Some of your 

 correspondents appear to have experienced difficulty in rearing larvie 

 of T. miniosa. T have successfully bred a lai'ge numl)er, and my plan was 

 as follows : — Almost fill an eight or ten-inch flowerpot with cocoanut- 

 fibre ; in this plunge a jar containing the food-jilant — in my case, 

 bramble —and carefully pad the mouth with cotton wool. Insert a 

 light Ijamboo cane to support a gauze sleeve, fastened round the rim 

 of the flowerpot with elastic. The pot is then placed in the open air, 

 where it will receive plenty of morning sun. This is an arrangement 

 which most nearly approached the natural conditions in which I have 

 found the larvas. They are day-feeders, and seem to love the sunlight. 

 I never lost any in the way your correspondents describe. — H. Tunaley, 

 30, Fairmount Road, Brixton Hill, S.W. 



OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Early Api'EAranoes. — The past winter has been so severe and long, 

 that the following notes may be interesting. March 8th, hardly any 

 thaw, Plmjalia pedaria seen ; 9th, Hybernia rupicapraria and A)iisopttryx 

 aescularia, he(\nei\t ; llth, Tortricodes hyemana, swarming; Lobophora 

 carpinata, seen. — T. A. Chapman, M.D., Firbank, Hereford. 



Notes from the ExcHAN(iE Baskets. — Mr. W. F. de V. Kane (Mona- 

 ghan) writes on Feb. 13th: — "To the various notes and suggestions 

 put forward to account for the lack of insects last year, I would add 

 my mite. Firstly, the lack was just as plienomenal here as in England. 

 Yet our winters are normally much more equable and wet, and in the 

 south frosts are but slight and evanescent ; and so, if an open mild 

 winter with sudden snaps of cold is unfavourable to hibei-nating larvaj 

 and pup!\?, species with those habits should be vei-y rare in Ireland, and 

 especially in the south, ^'et Kerry is our New Forest, and the .south 

 is far more prolific than the north. Ulster, which has a climate very 

 similar to that of Mid-Yorkshire, is very unprofitable to the entomo- 

 logist, except as regards sea-coast species and, perhaps, moor insects. 

 One fact, I noticed last spring, viz., the numbers of Ta3niocamps 

 with crumpled and deformed wings. I attribute it to the pupa^ having 

 been parched up by the dry summer of 1893. The drought was com- 

 mon to Ireland and Great Britain, the lieather in parts of Kerry being- 

 dead and brown in July. Now, extraordit ary conditions often produce 

 a change of habits in animals. In a harsh dry spring, years ago, 

 1 noticed that the rooks took to killing young rabbits, being unable to 

 get tlieir ordinary supply of suciculent food. I watched them from the 



