1887.] 11 



remembered having received an example from Dr. Xnaggs many years ago, but 

 Mr. Warren has now enabled us to add, for certain, JEupithecia innotata to the 

 British list ; it may be as well, perhaps, to add that the moth can scarcely be 

 separated {rom fraxinata, although the two larva; are distinct enough. — J. Hellins, 

 The Close, Exeter; March Ist, 1887. 



Odour observable in males of Pieris napi. — I read with interest the notes on the 

 odour emitted by Hepialus hecttis, and on looking through some back volumes of the 

 Magazine, I find a note by my father (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xix, p. 236), in which he 

 says that I discovered Pieris rapm to be scented. I was not aware of this note, or 

 would have corrected an error thereiu. About twelve years ago I was staying at 

 Kasli, near Pembroke, and one day caught a male Pieris napi in my fingers, and at 

 once discovered a strong scent about it, very like sweet scented verbena. Since then 

 I have, every year, been accustomed to catch this butterfly for the sake of the scent, 

 but I never found a P. rapcB that had any, though I have tried many, nor is there 

 any in the female P. najn that I am aware of. The scent is very similar to that 

 emitted by many species of Nomada, Prosopis, Psitkj/rus (Apatlms, N.), among 

 bees, and in all three cases it may be for the same purpose as in H. hectus. — 

 E. C. L. Perkins, Sopworth Eectory, Chippenham : March 1st, 1887. 



The flight and pi airing of Hepialus humuli. — I was very pleased with the interesting 

 observations ujjon this subject recorded in the December number of the Magazine by 

 Dr. Chapman, because they afforded an explanation of a circumstance I had witnessed 

 during the previous summer, and which I had been quite at a loss to comprehend : 

 whilst passing a waste place by a road side, where several " ghosts " were indvdging 

 in their usual evening dances, a male dashed past me in a straight line — a flight so 

 unusual that it attracted my attention. It stopped about six or eight yards from 

 me, and about a foot from the ground, where there were a few twigs. I thought a 

 spider's web had arrested its progress, as there was a slight flutter, a fall of about an 

 incli, and one or two vibrations, as if swinging in a web. I could hardly imagine 

 that a web would be strong enough to stop so strong a flight, and I went up to it to 

 investigate. I then found that the moth was pendulous in cop. with a female which 

 was sitting upon a twig. This made the matter seem still more surprising to me, as 

 the (J had darted to the twig at a distance so great that it could not have seen the $ 

 sitting upon it, and had gone past other 3 s which were hovering a few yards off, and 

 apparently unconscious of the proximity of the $ . The whole circumstance seems 

 incapable of any explanation, except that which Dr. Chapman supplies^that the $ 

 had selected the S , and then flown to the twig, followed by it in hot haste. 



There is one other peculiarity about the flight of this species, which I have not 

 ■oen recorded, viz. : that when a (J is hovering over a particular spot if driven away 

 it will invariably return to the same place. The first occasion on which I noticed 

 this was one evening when mothing round a large mound. Each time I came to one 

 particular spot there was a (J JZ". humuli hovering : as it had been driven out of its place 

 to allow of my passing, I wondered whether it was the same or a different moth each 

 time, so having driven it away again I watched it, and saw that it was the same which 

 returned. I repeated the experiment, with the same result, so that that moth must 

 have returned five or six times that evening to its hovering place. I have also not 



