NOTES ON COLLECTING. 309 



pupa' protrudin.q- thomselvcs in the evening, when I carefully fit over 

 thcni a glass-bottomed box, and leave. Such I have generally found 

 in the morning emerged and safe. On one occasion it was not so, 

 for on visiting it in the morning I found it still protruding. Thinking it 

 would emerge later, 1 left it for some hours, to work a more distant 

 part of the wood, but on returning in the afternoon it was as I had 

 left it, evidently intending to emerge next day ; as I should not 

 be there again for a week, I did not want to leave it, so I carefully got 

 it out, no easy task to do Avithout injuring it, as it was so soft. I 

 laid it on the palm of my hand and gently cracked the pupa, when the 

 moth immediately freed itself from its pupa shell, and, running to the 

 tip of my finger, settled itself to dry and expand its wings, which 

 operations were completed in about 15 minutes. I find the virgin 

 females do not call until nearly mid-day, and those that I have taken 

 in cop. have always been thus taken in the afternoon, sometimes as 

 late as 5 p.m. Sei<ia formiciformis was again exceedingly scarce. I 

 had never taken Sesia ci/nij)iformis until this season, when I Avas 

 fortunate to find it in oak stumps. The larA'a feeds between the bark and 

 solid Avood, and may be easily found by the frass Avhich it throAvs out. 

 I should say it takes tAvo years to feed, for in stumps Avhere the trees 

 had been felled last year, only half-fed larvae could be found, but in 

 older stumps both full-fed larvre and pupte were obtained. Li'ucophaaia 

 slnapis Avas as plentiful as ever during May and part of June, the 

 second brood, var. diniensis, being fairly out by July 10th, but Avas by 

 no means so plentiful as in 1893. The spun-up leaA'es of the broad- 

 leaved salloAV yielded a few larv;^ of Tethea relusa and Cleocerh 

 viminalis, one of the latter, Avhich I bred, being the rare type Avith the 

 basal half of the fore-Avings very dark. Jjy beating blackthorn for several 

 hours, I obtained about a dozen larva? of Zephyrvs helulae. Sugar 

 has been generally unproductive and most uncertain. Some nights it 

 paid very AA'ell, and yet the next night the same round AA^ould be almost 

 a blank, although as regards' temperature, Avind, etc., identically the 

 same conditions prevailed. The most notable species at sugar has 

 been Dicyclu oo, a species of AAdiich only .two had previously been 

 taken here. On one or two nights it AA'as fairly plentiful. Unfortu- 

 nately for me, I did not go on those nights, but several of my friends 

 did Avell. The ab. renago Avas also taken. During July it AA^as almost 

 a blank, but toAvards the end it paid better, Avhen Noctua rhomholrlea 

 came on fairly Avell, and did so until the middle of August, Avhen it 

 dropped oft' suddenly. During the first AA'eek in August oneNnctua dahJii 

 and two Triphnena suhsequa (= orhona) Avere taken, both being neAV 

 to the district. The Xanthids Avere so late that it appeared at one 

 time that they Avould be a complete failure, although a feAv Melllnid 

 (jUrago and Cirrlioedia .rerampeUna Avere taken at the lamps in the 

 toAvn, but in October the Xanthids made an appearance, and Tilincea 

 {Xanthia) aurago Avas not uncommon. — A. H. Hamm, Reading. 



Catocala fraxini in the Orkney Islands. — I saw a very fair 

 example of Catocala fraxini last week, in Orkney, taken by Mr. Jas. 

 L. Shaw, at the end of August, resting at the roadside betAveen Kirk- 

 wall and FinstoAvn. Unfortunately the thorax is quite bald, but the 

 Avings are in fairly good condition, considering the usage it must haA'e 

 got. This is the fourth specimen that I knoAv to haA-e been taken in 

 the north of Scotland during the past tAvelve or fifteen years, I 

 Avonder if they breed here ? — Arthur Horne, Aberdeen, 



