230 [March. 



Acherontia Atropos taken at a bee-hive. — A specimen o{ A. Atropos was caught 

 in the month of May, 1861, hy my friend Mr. Lloyd, of Badminton, flying in the 

 open daylight in front of his bee-hives, and apparently trying to enter one of them. 

 He knocked it down and secured it, and finally impaled it on a large shawl pin, in 

 which condition it refused to die, as he says, for several days. 



It is now in the collection of my son Robert, and, considering that he set it 

 some months after its capture, and taking into account the rough treatment it 

 received from one who loves bees and hates their enemies, and its being left to die 

 in the manner I have stated, it is a very respectable specimen of a fine female of 

 Acherontia Atropos. 



My son, who is a real lover of the science of entomology, has noticed this last 

 season, that the male of Pieris rupee has a distinct scent when alive. My eldest 

 boy took a specimen of C. jacohcece in my garden, almost as black as Odezia chcero- 

 phyllata. — C. Mathbw Perkins, Sopworth Rectory, Chippenham : January 21th, 

 1883. 



HydriJla palustris and Pieris Daplidice at Camhridge. — Last July, Mr. Chas. 

 K. Baker, of 72, King Street, Cambridge (and formerly master of the King Street 

 Schools, in that town), was good enough to show me the collection of butterflies and 

 moths foi'med by him in that neighbourhood some years ago. Amongst them was a 

 fine specimen of Daplidice taken by him near Newmarket on the 5th August, 1868, 

 also three Lmlia ccenosa bred from larv£B taken hy him at Wicken. An unset 

 Nocfua also attracted my attention as being a species unknown to me. This he very 

 kindly allowed me to take away and identify, and a comparison with the specimen 

 in the late Mr. AUis's collection in the York Museum, showed me at once that it 

 was a ^ HydriUa paJtistris, a conclusion which Dr. Battershell Gill has since 

 verified. Mr. Baker has been so exceedingly kind as to give me both the Bath white 

 and the palustris, for which I must here repeat to him my best thanks. — A. F. 

 Griffith, Sandridge, St. Albans : January 30th, 1883. 



Notes on Lepidoptera in Roxlurffhshire, season 1882. — Tlie season of 1882 

 appears to have been thi'oughout the country one of the most barren, with regard to 

 numbers of Lepidoptera, experienced for many years. Following a mild and open 

 ■winter, such a result might have been anticipated, and, judging in the same way 

 the two seasons preceding, following hard winters with much snow, being very prolific, 

 the obvious effect of the character of the seasons in reducing or preserving species 

 is very mai'ked. Larvse also appeared to be equally scarce during spring and 

 autumn. I have repeatedly noticed a peculiar variety of the larvsB of Smerinthus 

 populi feeding on Populus nigra in a particular locality, each segment, excepting the 

 1st, 2nd, and 12th, having a rather large, purplish blotch just above the spiracles, 

 and I have kept a few pupae from these for observation. The group of Noctuce, 

 especially during June and July, were very sparingly represented, the autumn species 

 being more numerous, but very deficient by comparison with average seasons. There 

 were, however, a few exceptions, a few species appearing in numbers much as usual, 

 notably, Trachea piniperda, Plusia v-aureum, &c., and among Geometrce, Eupithecia 

 pygmaala ; a beautiful variety of Epunda lutulenia occurs in the district, and also 

 of Ypsipetes elutaia, the latter having the fascia white. Excepting a few species, all 



