1886.] 255 



oi a rose-bush, it flitted quickly along close to the ground for a few 

 yards, and settled beneath a privet leaf, off which it allowed itself to 

 be boxed without further trouble. This specimen was evidently just 

 Dut. The margins of the basal patch and central fascia were marked 

 by slightly raised scales, as in some of the Peronece. I spent two more 

 afternoons after this without seeing another pauperana : and though I 

 have searched regularly every spring for the last six years, I have never 

 been lucky enough to observe a single specimen on the wing. 



Larvae of E. nigricostana, A. fidigana, and E. rupicola, were as 

 abundant as usual in their favourite haunts. It was while collecting 

 the larvae of this last near Cambridge in April, that I found in the 

 lower part of a hollow stem of Eupatorium a single ElacJiista pupa, 

 which presently produced a ^ imago, that, as far as I can ascertain 

 (and both Mr. Stainton and Lord Walsingham have seen my insect), 

 is distinct from any hitherto described species. A single specimen, 

 however, is hardly sufficient on which to form a species, but further 

 search this spring will possibly enable me to detect the larvae, and 

 throw light on the matter, by breeding the insect in large numbers 

 and both sexes. 



In June, the usual ground in the Fen districts yielded B. 

 argentula and A. Schrebersiana in undiminished numbers, while in 

 one spot A. SulzeJla and M. Mansuetella were not uncommon. In 

 Wicken Fen the larvae of Gel. morosa and suldecurtella were both 

 abundant in the tops of the yellow and red loose-strifes respectively, 

 but the mines of G^^ac imperialeUa in both broods, were this year 

 conspicuous only by their absence. 



From a batch of two dozen pupae of G. quercifolia, I bred one 

 imago, which, though unfortunately a cripple, is remarkable by reason 

 of its colour, which is almost exactly the same as that of its smaller, 

 but rarer relative, ilicifoUa. While on the subject of the Fens, it may 

 not be amiss to record that this season the local Pyralid, Nascia cilialis 

 was more than usually abundant, and that a single example of H. 

 palustris, a somewhat damaged ^ , came to the lamp of one of the 

 local collectors. 



At Tuddenham, in Suffolk, A. suJphuralis, A. ruhricata, and O. 

 IcBfus occurred in profusion, both in June, when I was there, and 

 throughout the summer, while here and there R. dipsacea and H. 

 luctuosa showed themselves in smaller numbers. At Brandon, about 

 the middle of June, I had the good luck to beat out of a spruce fir a 

 fine ? C. OclisenJieimeriana, previously, I believe, only recorded from 

 Lord Walsingham's fir plantations at Merton, where it is said to 



