196 [February, 



shelter from the searching wind on the trunks of the trees, where it 

 was easy to find them. When the weather changed, and became hot, 

 collecting Avas decidedly more difficult and less productive. 



A charming sight on the trunk of a large birch was a fine and 

 perfect pair of Leiocampa dictwoicles, and to a southener an occasional 

 Hadena glauca was almost as interesting. I think that Cannock 

 Chase must be nearly the southern limit of this species, it was far 

 from common. Pretty reddish specimens of Hadena coiitigua also 

 occurred, with Acronycta leporina, and, much more commonly, A. 

 rumicis, pretty specimens with very black markings.- The birch trunks 

 swarmed with Eudorea aiuhigiiaJis — the largest I ever saw alive : as 

 large, in fact, as E. cemhrcB — and these also were in many cases dark 

 and strongly marked. Eupoecilin nana, which was also plentiful, had 

 an odd trick of sitting on some projecting corner of the rough bark, 

 where it looked precisely like a small bit of bird's dropping. The 

 resemblance of Salonota PJluqinna to a larger deposit of the same 

 material was strikingly exemplified in a specimen which had been 

 driven by the rough wind to settle on an alder trunk. I did not 

 suspect that it was an insect, but, puzzled by the straight sharp out- 

 line of the dorsal blotch, looked closer, and the supposed bit of bird's 

 dung flew into my face. 



The dead — but still standing — birches were infested with Tinea 

 fulvimitrella and cloacella, the former evidently feeding under the 

 bark, either on the rotten wood or the mycelia of fungi, to a consider- 

 able height, the latter usually close to the ground. The large, 

 agaric-shaped, Polypori, which grew on these trees (and which pro- 

 bably bore a large share in their destruction), were not infested with 

 any Lepidopterous larva?, but the pupa skins of both these species of 

 Tinea projected from the bark of the trees where other, smaller, fungi 

 were growing. I have seldom seen more lovely insects than some of 

 the's^e fuJviynitrella , just emerged, nestling in the chinks of the bark to 

 avoid the wind, and prevented by the cold from taking ofi: the gloss of 

 their pristine beauty. 



Three or four times I found, also on birches, a single specimen of 

 (Ecophora stipella, which also must here reach its most southern limit. 

 The specimens were on living and dead trees, and so scarce that no 

 conclusion could be formed as to their food and habits. The noble 

 oaks which abounded along the crests of the hills produced very little. 

 Cidaria corylata occurred on their trunks as well as on those of birches, 

 and were of large size and great beauty of colour and markings. One 

 grand oak had been split into three great fragments by lightning, one 



