NOTES ON COLLECTING. 21 



thistles with a lantern and boxed odd specimens of Leucania impura, 

 L. pallens, L. lithan/i/ria and (Jaradrina inorpheus. On neither day 

 were butterflies much in evidence, as during the greater part of the 

 time it was wet and dull, but we took Enodia hijperanthi(s, Epinephele 

 janira and Polynw Hiatus cori/don. Pi/raiista pnrpuralis was common 

 in one meadow late in the afternoon of the 26th when the sun made 

 its appearance. Hypaena pi-obnacidalis was also taken. Just before 

 leaving we hunted round the stables at the Hotel and were rewarded 

 with a number of very good A(jlofisa jungninalis, one Pi/ralis farinalis 

 and about half-a-dozen Tinea tapet:.ella (tapetiella) on an old horse- 

 collar. — Philip J. Barraud, F.E.S., Bushey Heath, Herts. 

 Novewber 25th, 1903. 



Variation in the flight of Apamea ophiogramma. — Until this 

 season I had always been under the impression that each insect had 

 its own particular method of flight and that it always flew in the same 

 manner. This year I found out that such was not the case, but that 

 the weather appeared to bear a direct influence on the motions of some 

 insects. On July 28th I went to a favourite hunting-ground of mine 

 for Apamea ophiuuyaiinna. I arrived at dusk, and found the insect 

 buzzing about in the usual way. The night was warm, still and cloudy. 

 On July 29th I again went ; this time it was a cold night, and a very 

 bright moon shed its light upon the herbage. I found A. ophionramma 

 sitting quietly on the flower-heads of the betony, sucking the nectar. 

 On July 31st I again visited the hunting-ground ; this time it was 

 warm, but very windy, and I found A. ojihidiiranuiia flying at a height 

 of about nine feet, sometimes quite out of reach, dashing along with 

 great rapidity, and looking very much like Leucania pallens. I found 

 the season an exceptionally good one for a A. ophionrainuia, my take in 

 a week was over seventy. — E. Crisp, 31, Union Road, Cambridge. 

 Xovcwber 29th, 1903. 



Pyrameis cardui at Sudbury, Suffolk. — During last September, 

 Pyrameis cardui was very abundant here, and also in the Essex 

 district of this neighbourhood. I saw this species here in the spring 

 and early summer, so they probably breed in this locality. — Edward 

 Ransom, 16, Friars Street, Sudbury, Suftblk. Ihxeinber IQth, 1903. 



Xylophasia zollikoferi as a British insect. — With regard to 

 the record of the capture of Xylophasia zollikoferi at Middlesborough, 

 Mr. Lofthouse {Nat., p. 456) makes the remarkable statement that 

 Mr. Barrett says, " There is one certain previous British specimen in 

 Mr. Doubleday's collection in Bethnal Green museum, and, it is said, 

 one other." In British Noctuae, etc., i., p. 71, there are full details of 

 the two specimens hitherto recorded as British. The one in the 

 Doubleday collection was caught by Harding, the well-known Deal 

 professional ; the other was caught by Mr. Tait, a well-known Aberdeen- 

 shire amateur, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a mutual friend's 

 house, that of the late Mr. W. H. Tugwell, about a dozen years ago. 

 If any doubt is to be thrown on the l>o)ia tides of either of these 

 captures, as one who knew the captors of both specimens personally, 

 I state most emphatically that the one in the Doubleday collection is 

 to be the more doubted. For myself, I have little doubt that both 

 are genuine, and I think that Mr. Lofthouse should have looked up 

 the literature of the subject — surely easily enough obtained — ^before 

 publishing a doubt on the bona fides of Mr. Tait, even on the authority 



