OQg [February, 



In the first place, the larva of Pterophorus monodactylus is supposed, bo far as 

 I know, to be solely a convolvulus feeder ; but here, though it is common enough, I 

 can only rely on finding it among ling {Calluna vulgaris), or bilberry. It occurs 

 freely in September on the high bleak exposed moors, always about ling or bilberry 

 (but where convolvulus certainly does not grow), and there is no doubt it feeds on 

 either or both of these plants. I have sometimes tried to make another species out 

 of it ; and as there were, and I suppose still are, two specimens without label, 

 at the foot of the series of monodactylus in the Doubleday collection at Bethnal 

 G-reen, of one of our moorland forms, it is evident the late Henry Doubleday was a 

 little doubtful about them. As, however, the variety occurs with all the ordinary 

 well known forms of the species, they are clearly only monodactylus. 



Pterophorus acanthodactylus too, though a rare species here, I have never seen 

 except among ling. Its best known food plants are Ononis arvensis and Stachys 

 sylvatica, on both of which it is common in many places, but although we have a 

 little of the former, and the latter in abundance, I have never seen a specimen of the 

 moth about either plant. It does not, like monodactylus, occui* on high bleak moors, 

 but in woods having an under-growth of ling, but still quite away from either of the 

 two well known food plants. 



A larva which has completely bafiied all my attempts to find it, is that of 

 Pterophorus hipunctidactylus. The imago abounds among Scahiosa in some old 

 rough fields here, and is on the wing continuously from June until October. Mr. 

 W. Warren informs me he finds the larvse of the early summer moths feeding in the 

 autumn, in the flowers of Scahiosa, on sunny afternoons some of the larvee coming 

 outside the flowers, and being exposed should of course then be easily seen. And 

 Mr. C. Gr. Barrett, if I remember rightly, told me he had found larvse of the later 

 moths feeding in the stems of Scahiosa, before the time for the flowers to appear; 

 but although I have searched season after season, at all parts of the year from May to 

 September, and Mr. S. L. Mosley of this town has also worked diligently at different 

 times of the year for it, neither of us has ever been able to detect a trace of the 

 larva in any part of the plant. If any Lepidopterist who knows how to find it will, 

 in the coming season, send me a larva of either or both broods feeding in situ, I shall 

 be most grateful. — Geo. T. Poeritt, Huddersfield : January Uh, 1885. 



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Insect Migration. — Mr. Cockerell's remarks in reference to this subject {ante p. 

 159) remind me of my es.perience of Nomophila noctuel la (Stenopteryx hybridalis) 

 in North Devonshire this year. I did not see a specimen of this species anywhere 

 in the neighbourhood of Lynmouth before July 4th. On that date it was found in 

 considerable numbers in a rough field some 800 feet above sea level. I captured 

 many examples but retained very few, as the condition of the specimens was not 

 altogether good. In the course of the next few days N. noctuella was to be met 

 with here and there all over the district, but in the field where I first noticed it in 

 abundance, very few were to be found. I had worked in the rough field during the 

 previous week, June 25th, 26th, and 27th, for Orthotoenia striana. The weather at 

 that time was fine but cold for the time of year, with easterly or north-easterly winds. 

 If N. noctuella had been there and on the move either of those days I must have , /* 

 seen it. I am inclined to think that there were no N. noctuella in the field at the 



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