232 [March, 



of hills in the quarries, and makes itself generally at home. Consequently, rupicola, 

 faithfully following its fortunes, turns up in unlooked for places as an agreeable 

 surprise. From the coarse scaling of its wings, it however very soon becomes worn ; 

 and as it only condescends to fly for about half-an-hour — from five to half-past — in 

 each afternoon, the capture of a really fine series is not easy. It is possible on fine 

 days to turn out a specimen or two by disturbing the Eupatorium, but after its 

 half-hour of very brisk flight around the plants is over it is hardly possible to find. 

 — Chas. Q-. Baebett, Pembroke : November, 1875. 



On the egg of Cymatophora ridens. — I have been greatly interested in examining 

 the egg of this species, kindly sent me in May last by Mr. G. C. Bignell. Had he 

 not told me to what species it belonged, and had not the larva on its appearance 

 fully convinced me that my friend had made no mistake, I should have set it down 

 for the egg of a Geometer, not of a JVoctua. 



Its form is longish, cyUndrical, but with one end stouter and fuller than the 

 other; the shell glossy, covered all over with irregularly-triangular reticulation, 

 arranged in longitudinal rows not always well defined ; the colour, till just before 

 the hatching of the larva, pale vermilion red. — J. Heliins, Exeter : November 

 11th, 1875. 



Note on Syricthns alveolus. — I hardly know if it is worth recording that a 

 larva, reared from an egg deposited by a butterfly of the type form, has resulted in 

 an imago of the variety lavaterce. Haw. — Id. 



Description of the larva, cf'c, of Agrotera nemoralis. — I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Mr. H. Tugwell for eggs of this species, which reached me on the 4th of 

 last June. Unfortimately, I was not able to place the larva?, immediately on their being 

 hatched (June 8th) , upon their food, and from this cause most of them afterwards 

 came to grief; they are so small and delicate that they cannot bear moving. As 

 soon as I could, however, I procured hornbeam leaves and shoots, having been in- 

 formed than the moths were all captured off a hornbeam hedge, and not knowing in 

 what condition they would be most acceptable, placed leaves in all stages — young, 

 matured, and withered — in the bottle with the larvae. Had I been able to let the 

 laiwffi at once have access to leaves just unfolded from the bud, I have little doubt 

 all would have gone well. As it was, their strength seemed gone, and they died off 

 without feeding, till I thought I had not one left ; luckily this was not the case, for 

 after waiting a few days I examined the food again carefully, and found I had one 

 larva alive and doing well ; this fed on and throve, till about July 20th, when it 

 spun up for pupation. 



How the moth would deposit its eggs in a state of freedom, I cannot say : those 

 sent to me were laid singly on the sides of the pill-box ; they were very soft in 

 appearance, and though somewhat oval in outline not regularly so, very flattened, 

 the shell finely but unevenly pitted all over, almost translucent, in fact looking like 

 tiny spots of grease. 



The newly-hatched larva has the head remarkably large for its size, and has 

 longish bristles on the usual warts ; it is senii-translueent, pale greenish in the body, 

 the head pale brown. When it has fixed itself with a few silken threads between 

 two ribs on the under surface of a young leaf of hornbeam, it is at this stage almost 

 invisible ; and for some time it lives in this way under a protection of silken threads, 



