i.sm;.] 261 



contrary has been the case. Last year it was much commoner than this. Larvae 

 generally have been scarce, with the exception of those of Hibernice and TceniocampcB 

 in the spring. I have been examining the oak trees to-day, and have never seen 

 better foliage. — C. W. Dale, Manor House, Grlanvilles Wootton, Sherborne, Dorset : 

 September lith, 1896. 



Abundance of Gjnepteryx rhamni. — Oonepteryx rhamiii has been unusually 

 common here all through June, July and August, but I have not seen many since. 

 In that period I have seen as many as a dozen in my garden in a day. They generally 

 appear in spring and autumn, but this year they favoured tlie summer months. I 

 suppose that it would be difficult to prove whether the June specimens had hiber- 

 nated or not ; but I saw no worn or battered individuals among them, and they 

 continued without intermission throughout July to the middle of August. Surely 

 there would be plenty of time in such a warm spring as we have had this year for 

 larvae to feed up from April to June. — -Id. 



Xanthia aurago feeding on hornbeam. — Last autumn Mr. Barnes, of Reading, 

 sent me a few eggs of Xanthia aurago, which he had induced a female to lay in the 

 crevices of the bark of a piece of maple. These eggs hatched out this spring before the 

 maple was ready, and I was in a fix as to what to give them to eat. In looking round 

 the Parks here to see what I could find for them, I saw a hornbeam tree just showing 

 green buds, and thinking it probable that anything which eats beech would also eat 

 hornbeam, I brought a small branch and placed the newly-hatched larvae on it, and 

 they buried themselves at once in the buds ; I fed them all through from the same 

 tree. They grew very rapidly. I was away one week just after Easter, and on my 

 return was astonished at the progress they had made. When the buds first ex- 

 panded into small leaves the caterpillars spun them together into little tents to live 

 in, and this they continued to do till advanced in the last stage, when, like most of 

 the leaf spinners, tliey grew bolder and more careless, and were often exposed. 

 Q-enerally they lived two together in a tent, sometimes even three together. By the 

 middle of May they were full-fed, when they hid themselves amongst the leaves and 

 rubbish at the bottom of the cage, each one spinning itself a little cocoon, and there 

 they remained, like the others of the genus which I have bred, in a state of inactivity 

 for about seven weeks before changing to pupae. The moths emerged late in August. 

 — -W. Holland, 69, Observatory Street, Oxford : October, 1896, 



Leucania favicolor, Barrett.— Between June 23rd and July 3rd last I was 

 fortunate enough to capture seven more examples of this new species, and have no 

 doubt that, had I not been ordered away to take part in the naval manoeuvres, I 

 should have obtained more of them. These examples were submitted to Mr. Barrett 

 before I left England. They agree accurately with my original more typical speci- 

 mens, and do not show any particular tendency toward the startling row of black 

 dots with which one of my earlier female specimens is ornamented. During the 

 same period I took several of the dark red variety of L. jyallens, in which the white 

 nervures are obscured. I have also been fortunate enough this past season to rear 

 from larvae found in my own neighbourhood in Essex some very beautiful specimens 



