I'yS [July, 



Peeonea cristana.— I fancy there is much room for information 

 about the larva of this species, yet I cannot pretend to supply the 

 want, although I once bred the moth from a specimen found on wild 

 rose in July. It was supposed at the time to be Batodes angustiorana, 

 but the grey thoracic plate was noted to be unusually dark for that 

 species. Anfjnsfiorava, I need scarcely say, is a slender and very 

 active larva, of a clear pale yellow colour, not unlike candy-sugar, 

 with a pale honey-brown head, and still paler thoracic plate. Another 

 Peronen I had the pleasure of breeding last year, and one not often 

 seen in our jars, was umbrana -. it was strikingly beautiful, fresh from 

 the pupa. The larva was obtained from hawthorn in July, but no note 

 of it was taken. 



Catopteia tjlicetana — Early in April, 1892, I came upon some 

 plump little larvaj in the pods of Ulex gallii, clearing them one after 

 the other of their contents. Briefly described, they were short and 

 stout, heavier in front than behind, but with small heads ; yellowish- 

 white ; the head honey-brown ; thoracic plate ochreous, shaded behind 

 with grey ; anal plate faintly grey ish-ochreous ; spots indistinct, small 

 and grey. In the beginning of May they began to spin up. Some 

 remained for this purpose in the pods or among the calyces, others 

 left and wandered about until they found a congenial corner among 

 the general rubbish. It was a long time before they pupated, so that 

 what with mould and ichneumons, from which they suffered cruelly, I 

 only reared three specimens, and should probably have failed even of 

 this moderate success had I not, when in despair over the first men- 

 tioned evil, brushed all the material carefully over with the Glycerinum 

 Boracis, P. B., which effectually stopped its inroads. One moth 

 emerged in the second week of July, another on August 3rd, and the 

 third still later. They were all alike — very small (8^ mm.) and dark. 



I had expected something good, and to breed only the common 

 idicetana was in a way disappointing. However, it may throw some 

 light upon the habits of the insect, and especially upon the nature of 

 its double-broodedness. The first flight swarms round the bushes of 

 the common gorse (Ulex europeus) in May, it then disappears for a 

 time, but later on is once more on the wing from July to September, 

 though in very much scantier numbers. I think it is commonly sup- 

 posed that these autumnal specimens are the produce of the spring 

 flight, but from what has been related above it would rather seem that 

 the two flights are either independent broods, or else two parts of one 

 and the same brood, the larvae of the spring flight feeding up in the 



