PRACTICAL HINTS. 153 



11. — The examples of Sciaj>kila conftijcrsana, taken on the salt- 

 marsh at Southend, "appear to be very different from those captured 

 in the neighbourhood of Dover, on the chalk cliffs, not only in colour, 

 but in texture. They may ultimately prove to be a distinct species" 

 (Howard Vaughan). This has never been reported upon. 



Flower pots as breeding cages. — I use two garden pots for breed- 

 ing purposes, a large one of 18 inches diameter, three parts or more 

 filled with earth, and a small pot in which the food is planted, partly 

 sunk in the earth of the larger one. Round the outside of the larger 

 one sticks are placed, and round these, and attached to the rim of the 

 pot a muslin side is formed. There are very few plants that do not 

 trail over the edge of the pot when growing, and if the larva> fall out- 

 side they have no trouble to find the food-plant again ; whilst, when 

 full-fed, the larva?, as a rule, pupate in the outer pot. - S. Webb. 



:il^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Note on Callimorpha dominula. — Having found, with the help of 

 a friend, during the last year or two, one or two localities in which 

 this species appears to occur pretty regularly, on some of the hills in 

 this neighbourhood, it is interesting to note some of the characteristics 

 it exhibits. In a hill-side wood, in which little that was noteworthy 

 occurred, bordering one of the narrow tracks through it, the moths 

 were found resting on the varied herbage usually occurring in such 

 places. Only the hottest sunshine appeared to arouse them from their 

 lethargy. They were frequently found in cop., and, although the moth 

 is beautifully and conspicuously coloured, as it rested amongst the 

 variously-tinted herbage, it was not nearly so conspicuous as might be 

 supposed. Not the slightest objection was offered to the boxing 

 operation, and from the freedom with which eggs were laid, the student 

 might be led to conclude that the chief purpose nature had in view in 

 bringing the insect up to the development of wings was that flight 

 might be evoked to facilitate the generation being continued. Amid 

 the multiplicity of herbage, it was at first difficult to ascertain which 

 were the food-plants the larvfe most preferred. Strawberry and let- 

 tuce were found equally acceptable with the time-honoured hounds- 

 tongue. This latter, however, grows most commonly in the open, 

 on waste hilly ground. The following year (that is the present), how- 

 ever, disclosed another and very different locality in which the larv£e 

 appeared in extraordinary numbers. While this was not more than 

 a quarter of a mile from the original locality, it was out in the 

 open, though upon a gentle slope, and, reversing the general order of 

 things, the insect appears to have been befriended by man in the 

 introduction of a fresh and more relishing food-plant, if one may 

 judge from the numbers seen banqueting upon it, or enjoying a siesta 

 after having satisfied their hunger, when, in the genial sunshine of a 

 gusty March day, they appeared to be "O'er all the ills of life vic- 

 torious." The plants upon which they were feeding or resting were 

 sturdy tuberous-rooted specimens of the common comfrey, of which 

 there were some hundred or two dotted about, being apparently the 

 remains of a crop which had been sown for cattle fodder, and which, 

 with a ruinous garden and building adjoining, had been for some time 



