290 THE entomologist's record. 



Geometers were very plentiful here. Hyhernia marginnria showed a 

 greater tendency to smoky suffusion than I have hitherto noticed. 

 Larvae of Hepialus bqmlinus seem very small for the time of year ; 

 perhaps this is due to their long fast during the frost." The Rev. 

 E. C. Dobre'e Fox (Castle Moreton) writes on April 17th:— "I have 

 much pleasure in stating my experience with regard to Acontia 

 luctuosa. The insect is, I believe, double-brooded, but I have never been 

 after the first brood ; the second brood occurs at the end of July and be- 

 ginning of August. My great locality for it is a barren grass field at 

 Torquay (the first field you come to along the cliffs, after passing 

 Kilmore, on the cliff path to Anstey's Cove). Here the insect usually 

 abounds, although it ap^iears to have certain favoured parts of the field 

 in which it is more abundant. These spots, however, vary from year 

 to year. It flies in the hot sunshine, and without sunshine you may 

 search in vain by day for A. InctMosa, although I have taken it flying 

 at dusk, but not commonly. The larvae feed, 1 believe, on field bindweed, 

 and it is where this plant occui's, that this pretty species is to be found 

 in the greatest abundance. It is not a very easy one to capture, as it 

 darts about quickly, never, as a rule, however, going very far, and with 

 a quick eye you can mark its position, and then place your net over it ; 

 but whether your specimen is worth anything is quite another matter, 

 for it is a species which quickly gets damaged, and alas ! often when 

 you think that j'ou have a glorious fresh specimen, you find a piece out 

 of the wings. Should anyone be tempted to go and try for A. luctuosa, 

 in its favourite haunts, let me caution them against a possible dis- 

 appointment that I once had, viz., finding that the field had been ploughed 

 uj), and wheat growing instead of grass. Should this happen to anyone, 

 go through a little wood at the end of the field, and work the next field 

 you come to, keeping on the left side of the path. Here, A. luctuosa 

 also occurs, but in nothing like the same abundance. I may add that 

 the last time I was at Torquay, I took almost 120 of this species. I 

 have also taken it at Lulworth and Portland, but only two or three in 

 each place." 



POCIETIES. 



The members of the North London Natural History Society 

 made their usual excursion to the New Forest at Whitsuntide. Messrs. 

 Eobbins, Nicholson, Bacot and Harvey, joined later by Mr. Quail, made 

 up the party, and arrived at Lyndhurst on Friday night. The follow- 

 ing morning turned out cloudy and wet, and an early excursion by 

 Messrs. Bacot and Nicholson produced no result worth mentioning. 

 The morning continuing showery and unpropitious, Messrs. Bobbins 

 and Nicholson stayed indoors till just before dinner, when they essayed 

 a little larva-beating in Beechen Lane, but the result was a decided 

 failure. In the afternoon these gentlemen repeated the experiment of 

 the morning in Denny Wood, and the principal caj^tures were a fine 

 Notodonta trepkla, a good Anaitis plagiata, a brown specimen of Gram- 

 mesia trigrammtca, all evidently just out ; larvae of Asphalia rtdens, 

 BrepJios parthenias. Sec. were obtained. Messrs. Bacot and Harvey also 

 visited Stubby and Denny Woods, and added Taeniocampa miniosa and 

 Amphidasys strataria, among others, to the list of larvae, and extended 

 the records of imagines by Tephrosia punctularia, Bupalus piniaria and 



