27G [May, 



B. siccella (alar, exp., 3|"' — 4^") may be distinguished from 

 JB. variella (alar, exp., 4^'" — 5'") by its smaller size, shorter wings, 

 stouter and darker abdomen, and, so far as my observation goes, by its 

 uniformly darker colour. The specimens which I took are all very 

 dark, and have fewer white scales and light markings than any variella 

 I have ever met with ; they seem to vary but slightly, whereas in 

 B. variella there is every possible variety from very pale grey down to 

 nearly black. 



The habits of the two insects are apparently precisely similar, as 

 they both skip along with short jerky flights over the scant herbage or 

 bare sand in the hot sunshine. 



I hope to meet with the larva of B. siccella shortly, as at the time 

 I took the imago it struck me that Thymus serpyllum would very 

 possibly prove to be its food-plant, and this surmise is rather confirmed 

 by the following remarks of Tengstrom, who writes : — 



" The little moth is Chrysesthia siccella, Zell., a Butalid of which the dispro- 

 portionately long, pale steel-grey, lai-va lives in sand-tubes several inches long, both 

 under Thymus and under Empetrum, and in astonishing multitudes. From the 

 middle of June to the beginning of July one can find everywhere about, where 

 these plants grow on the open loose sand, not only the perfect insects, but also the 

 larvae and pupae of this moth in infinite numbers." 



I am greatly indebted to Mr. Stainton for his kind help in 

 identifying this species, and also for the above extracts from the works 

 of Zeller and Tengstrom. 



The Rectory, Corfe Castle : 

 March \Sth, 1887. 



Notodonta torva, Hiib., in Great Britain. — When recently looking through the 

 collections of Mr. F. Norgate, of Downham, near Brandon (formerly of Sparham), 

 he drew my attention to a moth which he had placed, with doubt, in his series of 

 Peridea trepida. This I recognised as Notodonta torva, Hiib., and a subsequent 

 comparison with a continental specimen removed all doubt about it. It was reared 

 by Mr. Norgate from either egg or larva found by him in North Norfolk, probably 

 in July or August, 1882 ; but as the ova found then hatched into what were supposed 

 to be blackish varieties of the larva of N. ziczac, no record was kept sufficient to 

 distinguish them from his other Notodonta larvae, which others were all taken also 

 in the same division of Norfolk. He found the supposed eggs of N. ziczac on aspen 

 (Populus tremula) in July, and on Canadian poplar {Populus balsamifera) in August 

 of that year. Both produced very dark larvae similar in shape to those of ziczac, 

 and it was most probably from one of these that torva appeared. Unfortunately the 

 pupa was not separated from others of the same locality. IJe had no larvae nor 

 pupae of Notodonta from any other locality that year, and is quite certain that this 

 torva was reared from an egg or larva of his own taking in Norfolk. 



