226 [November, 



I was not present when five beautiful specimens of Vanessa 

 Antiopa were captured in a rough field adjoining Tuddenhain Common 

 by an old pupil (Mr. John Edwards), as they sucked the saccharine 

 moisture from the trunks of some birches less stunted than those 

 which grow on the common. But I 'had a glorious evening in a field 

 about half-a-mile from Tuddenhain, where a fresh brood of AcidaJia 

 rubricaia appeared en masse, flitting about like pink and purple stars 

 in the golden sunshine of the declining sun, about seven o'clock in 

 the evening. So abundant were they, that I had twenty-nine choice 

 specimens in my boxes, and a number more in my net. 



It is now the middle of August, and a larva-hunting expedition is 

 organized. Many a blow is dealt to the low birches and oaks that 

 abound on the heath and marsh, and many are the caterpillars 

 that fall into the umbrellas. That of Notodonta dromedarius is 

 especially abundant on the birches, and so is that of JV. camelina on 

 both birches and oaks. JV". dodoncea and chaonia also fell occasionally 

 from the oaks ; nor is it very often that the caterpillars of JV. dictceoides 

 with their long yellow stripe, and of Acronycta leporina, usually with 

 white but now and then with yellow hairs, put in a welcome appearance. 

 The larger leaved sallows produced Dicranura furcula, and Salix 

 repens is in places studded with the neat little dwellings of Clostera 

 reclusa. Occasionally, too, an oak will yield a welcome larva of Dre- 

 pana hamula, and D. falcataria swarms upon the birches ; nor is 

 Notodonta ziczac absent from the sallows, or Geometra papilionaria 

 from the birches. But we must not neglect the Galium verum in the 

 sandy district, or miss the exquisite caterpillar of Anticlea sinuata, of 

 which I have often taken a boxful, and which may be swept or searched 

 for according to the taste or convenience of the Entomologist. 



Such was Tuddenhain in its palmy days ; but now, alas ! the pro- 

 fessional collector has invaded it, and the amateur finds much less to 

 reward him in the way of such larvae as that of Dianthoscia irregularis. 

 But the winged game is as abundant as ever, only it must be remem- 

 bered, that many moths, e. g., especially AcidaJia rubricata, change 

 their station according to cultivation, and are not found exactly in the 

 same locality year after year. Let Tuddenhain be visited in the second; 

 and last weeks of June, and, with favourable weather, the Entomologist 

 will be pretty sure to see and find things there which he will not easily 

 find in abundance in any other locality. 



P.S. — I cannot remember, for certain, whether it was in July or 

 August that an elm near Icklingham, in the same district, produced 

 the exquisite little Tortrix, Aryyrolepia Sclireibersiana. I have, there- 

 fore, not included it among the captures of any special expedition. 



Manorbier, Pembrokeshire. 



