90 THE entomologist's record. 



ordinary Noctuid fashion. Under a two-thirds lens the base is seen 

 to be somewhat contracted below the equatorial area, and there is a 

 large basin-shaped apical depression. At the bottom of this, one traces 

 a minute, central, circular ridge, within which is the micropyle, but 

 the structure is difficult to make out. There is no trace of ribbing 

 (vertical or transverse) even with a one-sixth lens, only the merest 

 traces of longitudinal striations, on what otherwise appears to be the 

 perfectly smooth and shining surface of the egg. The egg-shell is 

 apparently transparent. Mr. Barnes (to whom I am indebted for the 

 eggs) wrote, on Nov. 15th : — " The eggs of D. oo were laid on June 

 19th, 1896, and have not changed in colour since they were deposited." 

 [The eggs were described on Jan. 14th, 1897, when their colour was 

 still unchanged] . 



Porthetria dispar. — The egg is almost spherical, pale salmon colour 

 soon after being laid, but quickly becoming of a dirty-brown colour, 

 owing to the development of the embryo. The surface of the shell 

 appears almost smooth under a two-thirds lens, but under a high 

 power is covered with fine hexagonal reticulation. At the apex of 

 the egg is an open, basin-shaped depression, the micropylar rosette 

 being indistinctly traceable at the bottom of it. The shell is evidently 

 transparent, and now (Jan. 15th, 1897) the head parts of the embryo 

 are very distinctly visible through it. The eggs are laid side by side, 

 thickly covered with brown hairs, from the anal tuft of the female. 

 Sometimes the eggs are laid upon each other. They are always laid 

 in patches, which vary, however, greatly in size. — J. W. Tutt. 



:iaOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Notes of collecting in 1896. — Snnt/tcnd and Caniri/. — Until 

 the end of July, the season here was very good, but after that time 

 sugar was all but useless. Our local insects all appeared in increased 

 numbers. I obtained a few cases of Kpichnopteri/x irticdla, from 

 which, in due course, females occurred, and these attracted a crowd of 

 males. On June 9th I found larva? of Lithosia comjdana and T/njwc- 

 licus lineola, the former on a lichen-studded post. Both pupated in 

 due course, and the moth emerged on July 12th, the butterfly on 

 July 1st. T. lineola was unusually common, during the first Aveek of 

 July, at Canvey ; Mtianar<iia galatca occurred at the same time, but 

 was restricted to one field. Pohjommatiis astrarchc was tlie butterfly 

 on the sea-wall, on the southern side of Canvey, on August 3rd, when 

 it was most abundant. I only saw one Vanessa io, one Pjirawein 

 cardui, and not one P. atalanta. I netted a female P'lmrodesvia 

 sinarafidaria on the evening of July 22nd, and on the 26th I boxed a 

 very fine male of the same species, and Thiiandra amntaria and Acidalia 

 vianjineininrtata occurred more commonly than usual. C'lisiocaiiqia 

 castrensis also were more abundant than in 1895, but there was less 

 variation in the imagines, and females occurred in about the propor- 

 tion of 3^ to 1 male. Swarms of Noctuids came to sugared black- 

 thorn and reeds at the end of June and well into July, Leucania 

 straminea (larvie found at the same time), Hadena ahjecta (not much 

 variation), and Calamia phrapinitidis were among the best. IJijdroeeia 

 nictitans (? H. paludis, Ed.) also presented considerable variation. Her- 

 minia crihralis occurred rather commonly, and Eupithecia subnotata 



