NOTES ON COLLECTING. 65 



Cataplectica kakreni. — A specimen that I could not determine 

 when I captured it, but which I thought was an Rlarhhta, corresponds 

 with six specimens of ('. fanrni, sent to me by Mr. Farren.— Ihid. 



The lepidoptera of Church Stretton in 1896. — The season, 

 from May to the end of July, was one of the best Avhich I have ever 

 had in this neighbourhood. Of the productiveness, or otherwise, of 

 the sallows I cannot speak, having been away, and, moreover, laid up 

 with influenza at the time that these were in bloom. Owing to the 

 same cause, a large brood of Kndromh versicolor, which I had reared, 

 ab ovo, were, for the most part, spoiled, and quite unfit for setting. On 

 the 25th April, Cucidlia verbasci, a species hardly to be expected here, 

 came to light. Lciocauipa (lictaroiilca tell to my lot on May 11th; it 

 was a very good year for this species, which continued out till the 

 beginning of June. On the 18th of the former month I got several 

 specimens of Si/richthus malrac (alrrolus), which, as a rule, is not 

 common with us. The first Noiicophila iiUuitcujinh was noted by me 

 on the 17th of the same month, and a few ab. honpita on the 28rd 

 and 26th. This ab., I regret to say, was very much rarer 

 this season than last, a circumstance which I attribute mainly to 

 the very open winter of '95-'96. I was lucky enough to get a very 

 dark form of Aniji/iidasi/x hctularia ab. ilouUcilai/aria, at rest on a large 

 oak, on the 19th May. The following day may be considered a red- 

 lettered one, in so far as L. dlctacoidcs is concerned, for, on that date, I 

 caught two 3 s and two $ s at rest on birch, though it was one of the 

 very coldest days of our spring. About this time I found a few larvtB of 

 Lithosia coinidana roaming about, apparently in search of snug 

 quarters for pupation. On the 21st, I bred a very beautiful form of 

 Craniophora li;/i(stri, which, instead of being more or less green, was 

 suffused with violet, very similar in shade to that found on 

 Diantlioecia cucubali. The same evening I took another specimen of the 

 same form, resting on ash. On May 2Kth, a beautiful J ('crura 

 bicuspin emerged from the pupa which I had cut from a birch the 

 preceding August. It is a very large specimen, almost as wide across 

 the wings as my largest $ (.'. bifida, and is much dai-ker than any of 

 the same insect got off alder ; indeed, the central band on the fore- 

 wings is almost black ! About this period, (Jhorrorainpa porrdlm 

 began to appear pretty freely at honeysuckle and rhododendron bloom ; 

 it was joined, during the earlier part of June, by its congener, 

 C. elpcnor. Now sugar began to pay here; insects turned up as 

 freely as they did in " the seventies." Of this I was very glad, 

 having begun to think, owing to frequent failures, that this form of 

 attraction had lost its charms for lepidoptera. I never remember 

 seeing so many Triphaena pnniuba before, their fore-wings being of 

 almost every possible shade, varying from putty-white to almost black. 

 Leiuania rovima, too, was very common ; it is a large, well-marked 

 form which we mostly obtain. By this means also I managed to 

 get Xi/lophasia lithoxijUM, Xijlopluma rurca ab. cowbusta, X. hcpatica and 

 X.polijodon ab. brunnea, Tutt, and ab. infuscata, White, as well as very 

 m.any common species. Three splendid specimens of PImia interro- 

 fiationis were taken by me, ri~., on the 28rd and 27th of June, and on 

 the 5th of July. Passing on to this latter month, I was greatly 

 surprised, on the 6th, to net a very fresh CVr/70 inaf.tira {ci/t/icrca) 

 flying in one of the dampest meadows about here, and a good distance 



