128 [May, 1895. 



by searching an old wall, and larvsa of Chariclea unibra occurred on 

 rest-harrow. Owing to illness, entomology was out o£ the question 

 for me during most of August, when sugar was yielding so rich a 

 harvest of rarities in the Isle of Wight, but later on moths were much 

 less common than usual at ivy bloom, some four or five Xylina petrijl- 

 cata being the most noteworthy, with the exception of Dasycampa 

 rubiginea, of which by constant work eight specimens were boxed in 

 the same spot of very limited extent where it has occurred, though in 

 Btill smaller numbers, in previous years. I have failed to find it 

 elsewhere, and have never seen it either at sugar in the autumn or 

 spring, or at sallow bloom, but I hope that the present attempt to 

 hibernate the moths and obtain eggs will be more successful than my 

 previous one. As a rule Cerastis spadicea swarms with us at ivy 

 bloom, while C. vaccinii is somewhat scarce, but the tables were now 

 turned, the former being far from plentiful, whereas the latter was 

 not uncommon. 



Tew good Pyralides or Cmmbites fell to my lot ; five or six Odontia 

 dentalis, and some Sienia puiictalis, as well as single examples of 

 Ennycliia cingulata, Ehulea stachydalis, and Botys asinalis, were netted, 

 and a nice series of Scoparia mercurella included one or two of the 

 handsome variety concinnella. Salehria semiruhella was met with rather 

 commonly in one spot, though not until it was already in indifferent 

 condition, and Nephopteryx genistella, which seemed to have almost 

 reached the vanishing point in 1893, occurred in the larval state on a 

 few gorse bushes. 



The Pterophori were represented by, amongst others, Aqdistis 

 Sennetii (1) and a few Oxyptilus teucrii, O. parvidactylus, Pterophorus 

 spilodactylus, and P. haliodactylus ; but since 1890 P. paludum has 

 successfully eluded me, nor do we seem to get much nearer the dis- 

 covery of the life-history or food-plant. One Plcdyptilia cosmodactyla 

 was captured by a friend, but the larvae and pupae collected by myself 

 on flower spikes of StacTiys sylvatica in the hope of breeding it, 

 yielded nothing rarer than the closely allied P. acanthodactyla. 



The general depression seemed also to have affected the Tortrices. 

 Representatives of Penthina sellana* Wilk., Semasia Janthinana (1), 

 Endopisa pisana, Diclirorampha alpinana, Tr., \_= politana,y^\\V..'] (1), 

 Eupcecilia atricapitana, Argyrolepia zephyrana, and Conchylis Francil- 

 lana, were taken along the coast, Cnephasia conspersana was at home 



* M. Ragonot (Ann. Soo. Bnt de France, Ixiii, 201-2 [1894]) treats sellana, Hb , Froel., as 

 irrecogni-sable, and sinks sellana, Gn., H.-S., Wilk , Stn., Hein., as identical with ob'ongana, Hw. 

 (= marQiaana, Hw.), but in any case the sellana of British .authors, a species well known to 

 many of us, is, in my opinion, anduubtedly distinct from oblongana, IIw., and from all other 

 species found in this country ,,cf- Kut. Mo. Mag., ix, 128) 



