NOTES ON COLLECTING. 185 



Other records are Barnes Common (E. C. Rye), Sheppey and Woking 

 (Walker), Little Blakenham (J\[orley), etc. — Id. 



Two NEW LOCALITIES FOR J^LEDius FKMOKALis, Gyll.— When in the 

 New Forest last month, I discovered a colony of Bledina fenioyalis on 

 a patch of damp white sand. I now find that all the specimens 

 of a BledtKs I took in Richmond Park some years back are this species, 

 also taken b}'' Prof. Beare there. — Id. 



::^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



First brood of Agrotis puta. — Little enough seems to be known 

 of the first hrood of Af/rotis pitta, and one finds scarcely any record 

 thereof. It may be worth while, therefore, noticing that I found a 

 specimen resting on the window of my house on the morning of 

 June 4th. — A. M. Cochrane, Lewisham. June 8th, 1908. 



The Scotch Anthrocera achillete. — I was much interested and 

 gratified to read in the current vohime of this magazine, pp. 73 and 74, 

 that the identity of the species of Antlimceia which I have long 

 suspected existed in the western Highlands of Scotland, had been estab- 

 lished. Mr. Tutt is quite correct in stating that the first specimen of A. 

 achilleae taken in Britain was the one captured by myself and referred 

 to in Natural History of British Bepidoptera, vol. i., p. 442. I have 

 seen the specimens obtained by Mr. Cockayne from Mr. Renton, and 

 they are identical with the Anthrocera captured by me in Argyllshire 

 on July 8th, 1898. As a matter of fact, I am rather surprised the 

 point has not been cleared up before, because, in this magazine, 

 vol. xiii., pp. 136 and 137, I gave a full account, with locality, of my 

 capture, and I have been expecting to hear something about it each 

 season since then. It is a rather remarkable fact that, in chatting 

 about my specimen with Mr. Tutt shortly after its capture, he 

 expressed the opinion that, from my description, it might very 

 probably be A. achilleae, and, on inspecting the collections in the 

 British Museum, which I did, I gave particular attention to the series 

 of this species, but as I had not my specimen to compare with them, 

 I did not succeed in identifying it. — W. G. Sheldon, F.E.S., Youl- 

 greave. South Croydon. June Qth, 1908. 



Abundance of Hyponomeuta larv^. — In a hedge in the near 

 neighbourhood of Knockholt Station, are a number of large bushes of 

 spindle, Knonynim europaens, the rest of the hedge being composed 

 chiefly of whitethorn and hazel. On June 8th, these spindle-bushes 

 presented a most remarkable appearance. They were absolutely 

 stripped of their foliage, and the branches and twigs covered every- 

 where with ropes of silk spun by the now nearly fullfed larvcTe of what 

 appeared to be Hi/pononienta caynai/ellns. There was no further food 

 for the larvfe, and they were rolled up in almost solid little masses in 

 nests spun in the hawthorn, which, however, they had not eaten. 

 They were, in spite of the apparently disastrous want of food, plump 

 and healthy, and would no doubt shortly pupate, food or no food, and 

 cover the hedges with their marvellous little, spotted, snowflake-like 

 bodies. On the same day, in the town of Sevenoaks, the hawthorn- 

 bushes were almost equally severely attacked by the larvae of the allied 

 Hyponomeuta padellus. In Lewisham, the larva; of one of the species of 

 Hyponomeuta is a great nuisance in gardens, defoliating the bushes of 



