NOTES ON COLLECTING. 23 



district I believe. It was not a stray visitor, as I boxed, on two subse- 

 quent visits, four more specimens in fine condition. A specimen of 

 Cuspid ia meni/anthidis tbat emerged in the open on August 6th, from a 

 larva that had pupated three weeks earlier, may be worthy of note. — S. 

 Walker, York. Nncember 15th, 1903. 



EUCN^MIDOPHORUS RHODODACTYLUS AND iEoERIA SPHEGIFORMIS IN 



Essex. — I was particularly pleased to find, between June 16th and 

 21st, near Thorndon Park, in this county, several larvse of Encnaeniido- 

 phorus rJiodudactylus. I do not know whether my larvae were ichneumoned 

 or whether I treated them wrongly, but I only succeeded in getting 

 one moth. In the same neighbourhood and at the same time there 

 was plenty of evidence of the presence of .S^/eria sphef/iformis in the 

 alders. — F. G. Whittle, 3, Marine Avenue, Southend. November 

 Vdth, 1903. 



Note as to rearing Cymatophora fluctuosa. — Has anyone worked 

 for larvtB of Cijmotophura fiiictuosa this year ? I took some 50 

 examples late in September, not half-grown, and having no tree which 

 could keep its leaves to sleeve them on, and green food for them being 

 hard to get, I lost them all. Owing to the birch-leaves turning and 

 falling so early in the district where I found them, I should imagine 

 few, if any, would get through in nature. — B. W. Adkin, F.E.S., 

 Trenoweth, Hope Park, Bromley, Kent. 



Lepidoptera at the New Forest and at Boscombe in 1903. — I 

 must add my wail to that of the majority and complain of the 

 badness of the season, especially the unattractiveness of sugar. I 

 have put on dozens of pounds of treacle, and have not set more than 

 a score of moths taken by that means. Larv^ were fairly common 

 at intervals, but T found nothing like the numbers taken last year, 

 which was also bad. The most noticeable larvae, fairly common in 

 some years, were almost entirely absent, viz., N<da stri(/nla, Zephyrun 

 qiierciis, Asphalia ridens, Sarrothripa undtdauus {rerai/ana), Dri/iiwnia 

 chaonia, Cleora i/labraria, (!. lichenaria, Eiii/oniajiolt/chluros, etc. Moths 

 which are common at sugar most years, such as AnehoceUs htwisa, 

 Epunda nif/ra, Aijriopis aprilina, etc., never put in an appearance at 

 all. At ivy I took a few Orrliodia liyula, Orthosia macilenta, and 

 one Baaycanipa riibiginea. Sallow was no good at all, only a few 

 Taeniocampa stabilia and 2\ criida being taken. I turned up Cidaria 

 p)icata and Melanippe unangidata in fair numbers, and got ova from both, 

 although I had not previously seen either of these insects for years. 

 Pyrameis cardui was common, but evidently immigrants. Ayrins 

 convolviili was scarce, and also immigrant, and I do not think any 

 which bred in this country were taken. I had two or three trips to 

 Swanage, and found Thymelicus actaeon and Melanaryia yalathea 

 commoner than usual. The river was too full to really work for 

 larvae of Nonayria ye)itinipunvta, and most of the pupae I did get were 

 ichneumoned. I saw two or three Colias edt(sa in the New Forest, 

 but none in this immediate neighbourhood. A spot where I used to get 

 fine confluent Antlirocera trifolii was entirely wiped out this year owing 

 to the flood. During October I collected several cones of Scotch fir 

 with larvffi of Dioryctria abietella in them, and took two imagines in 

 July and August. — K. B. Kobertson, Forest View, Southbourne Road, 

 Boscombe. Nucember 2GfJi, 1903. 



Pyrameis cardui in Essex. — The only observation of importance 



