NOTES ON LIFE-mSTOUIKS, LARV/E, ETC. 241 



a bird's dropping is very perfect. When searching for larvfe on the 

 Fen, I picked up a carrot leaf with what I took to be a young larva 

 on it, but which proved, on closer examination, to be the excrement of 

 some small bird. — A. Bacot. October 1st, 1896. 



The re.aring of Polia xanthomista var. nigrocincta. — Last winter 

 there was an account in The Record describing how to rear P. var. 

 ni()rocincta from the egg. I obtained some eggs, and did my best with 

 them, but was unsuccessful. I daresay other people have been rearing 

 che same species during the summer, as the eggs were a good deal 

 advertised. Would some of the successful people tell us how their 

 success is obtained ? My experience with these larvae was that they 

 would eat groundsel freely, and other things too, but after the first 

 week or two, I kept them upon the flowers of garden thrift. They 

 were very healthy until full-fed, when they all died off gradually. The 

 larva very much resembles that of F. eld in colour, until the last 

 moult, when it changes from green to brown, and the lateral white 

 stripe becomes much less distinct. It also resembles it in shape and 

 attitude. The larvie seem to be minus the tAvo front pair of claspers 

 or prolegs until nearly half-grown. This causes the young larvtB to 

 "loop" a great deal as they travel. — W. M. Christy, M.A., F.E.S., 

 Watergate, Emsworth, Hants. September 22nd, 1896. 



:]i>RACTICAL HINTS. 



Field Work for November. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



1. — During the winter, stacks of heath, turf and bracken should be 

 beaten for hybernating Depressarias and other moths. 



2. — Pupte of Eupithecia fraxinata are to be found under loose bark 

 and moss, on the trunks of ash trees, all through the winter. 



3. — During the Avinter the pupte of PaiKdis phdiirrda are to be found 

 under the last year's layer of needles and moss. Koll back the carpet- 

 like layer, and the pupte are usually found at about the distance of a 

 foot from the tree. 



4. - The larvffi of .SV»w.sia o5,s(:ifrrt;trt {ijalUcolana) live through the 

 winter in the old dried oak-apples fixed on the twigs of young oaks. 

 The oak-apples should be collected in Avinter and early spring. 



5. — To keep eggs through the Avinter in a natural state of dampness, 

 " I get a clean smooth piece of that velvety moss Avhich grows on old 

 walls and cottage roofs, and, having carefully sprinkled the eggs over 

 it, place it in a floAver-pot, together Avith the food- plant ; as the eggs 

 sink into the moss, they cannot get shifted about ; and, moreover, the 

 moss Avill not entangle the legs of the ncAvly-hatched larvffi. Of course 

 the moss should be groAving " (J. Hellins). 



6. — The first specimens of ('urpocapsa nliiihana obtained in this 

 country Avere " bred by Lord Walsingham, from larvte found hybernating 

 in cocoons under moss on beech trunks, in Buckinghamshire " (Barrett). 



:iaOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 

 Notes from East Devon. 



By W. S. BIDING, B.A., M.D., F.E.S. 

 When Mr. Tutt Avrote to me, a few weeks ago, to ask if I would 

 send him some account of our season in East Devon, I felt inclined to 



