TEPHHOSIA BISTORTATA (CREPUSCULARIA) AS A SCOTCH INSECT. 259 



the white form was very interesting. This year I paid a visit to 

 Birnham Hill, 151 miles north of Perth, during the second week of 

 May, and there took T. histortata. Birnham Hill rises to a height of 

 1324 ft., and at the top is a clump of larch and fir. T. bistnrtata oc- 

 curred principally upon the larch. Last year I obtained a small 

 batch of larvfe from Kinfaun insects, and sleeved them upon a gera- 

 nium, and on this they fed up remarkably quickly, pupated, and the 

 moths emerged during last February ; but, strange to say, they did 

 not produce the Kinfaun form, but the form which occurs near Perth. 

 The insect is not double-brooded here. — E. R. Bush. October Qth, 

 1896. 



The earliest date on which I have taken the Perth form of T. 

 hixtnrtata is April 27th, and the latest the last week in May. The 

 insect is in its prime from May 4th to May 10th. I do not think 

 really melanic forms occur at Perth, but the males are generally 

 darker than the females, and vary much. — J. Wylie. October 28th, 

 1896. 



I used to take a large form of Tephrosia, of a rich brown 

 colour in Scotland, on larch trunks, towards the end of May. It was 

 single-brooded. We used to call it T. laricaria. I took these speci- 

 mens of T. laricaria ( bistort ata ) for several years about 1860, at 

 Ardentinnie on Loch Long, in Argyleshire. T. crepuscularia [bixmchi- 

 laria) did not, I believe, occur there. I never saw it. — T. A. Chapman, 

 M.D., F.E.S. October 18th, 1896. 



I have only once taken a single example of the Tephrosias, under 

 discussion, in Morayshire, and I copy the following extract from my 

 diary : — " Saturday, April 16th, 1892. Altyre Wood, Forres. — Found 

 one Tephrosia biumlularia (/), and one banded Lobophora lobidata, 

 resting on fir trunks. The ground was covered with snow." [The 

 specimen has since been determined as T. bistortata, vide, Ent. Rec, 

 ix., p. 93] . — A. HoRNE. 



The only other facts relating to Scotch specimens of T. bistortata 

 are the references to Mr. Adkin's Altyre specimen (Ent. Bee, ix., p. 29), 

 Doubleday's and Smallwood's references to the species (Ibid., pp. 28- 

 29), my own experiences of breeding the species (Ibid., p. 29), and 

 Mr. Prout's references (Ibid., vol. viii., p. 78). As Dr. Chapman 

 regularly obtained T. bistortata at Ardentinnie, I consider it more 

 than probable that specimens taken by Mr. Douglas Walker, at Loch- 

 goilhead, were of the same species. There is as yet no shred of evidence 

 that T. crepuscularia fbitmdularia) has, up to the present, ever been 

 found in Scotland, though there appears to be no possible reason why 

 it should not be found there. — J. W. Tutt. 



j^CIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Aphomia sociella in the nest of Vespa sylvestris. — In continua- 

 tion of a short paper I sent last year (vol. viii., pp. 182-183) with refer- 

 ence to the wax moth, Aphomia colonella {sociella), I found a small nest 

 of Vespa st/lrestris, the size of a cricket ball, suspended from the root of 

 a tree in a bank almost visible through the grass. The wasps had just 

 left it, and the whole was spun up into a hard mass. I kept it in my 

 vivarium all the winter, and in the spring I found it very damp and 

 mouldy, and was nearly inclined to throw it away. In the beginning 



