102 [December, j 



In writing to Professor Zeller I mentioned my dilemma and called his attention I 

 to the figures given by Freyer in his Beitrage (I, 11) and in his Neuere Beitrage (I, S2), I 

 and to that given by Duponchel in his Iconographie. In reply the Professor says : j 

 "With regard to the larva of Cerura erminea, I can assure you that it is correctly 

 represented by Freyer on both his Plates, but the earlier figure is almost better than | 

 the later one ; the long white streak which runs down the side will distinguish it t 

 with certainty from the larva of C. vinula. I met with the larva in 1850 at Grlogau, \\ 

 on Canadian Poplar, and bred a beautiful female the following March." 



If the dark dorsal mark which we find both in the larva of C. vinula and in i 

 that of C. erminea be compared to a saddle, then the distinctive character of the j 

 latter larra is the snowy white stirrup-leather (with no stirrup attached) tohich 

 depends from the saddle on the hinder half of the 8th segment descending below the k 

 level of the spiracle. If any one succeeds in finding a " Puss " larva with such a 

 character, let him take great care of it, and if it does not produce an ichneumon, he :j 

 may look in due course to see the imago of Cerura erminea. — H. T. Staintojt, 

 Mountsfield, Lewisham, November 11th, 1881. 



lie-occurrence of Trochilium scoliiforme at Llangollen. — ISTot having sen any 

 recent notice of the capture of Trochilium scoliiforme I thought that the record of I 

 a specimen taken this year might be interesting. Walking in a birch wood on June $ 

 26th, in the middle of the day, my attention was attracted by something running up 1 

 the trunk of one of the trees, this proved to be a female T. scoliiforme, with wings I 

 unexpanded. A close examination discovered the empty pupa case protruding from I 

 the bark, and close to it another empty case. I diligently searched the trunks in I 

 the neighbourhood, and kept a sharp look out on the flowers but without further I 

 result. The birch wood close to Yalle Crucis Abbey, Llangollen, is the precise I 

 locality mentioned by Stainton in his British Moths.— Gr. 11. Kenbick, Maple | 

 Bank, Edgbaston : October 21th, 1881. 



Agrotis Ashworthii at Tenmaenmaivr. — When collecting in North Wales, 

 towards the end of July last, I found, high on a mountain at Penmaenmawr, two 

 hatches of eggs of some Noctua, but which I did not recognise. The smaller batch, 

 deposited on the bare rock, I left, but the larger batch, deposited on a withered 

 heath-twig, I brought away. These soon hatched, and the larvre fed well on 

 Polygonum and other plants until about five-eighths of an inch long. But early in 

 September, perhaps for want of suitable conditions for hibernation, they began to 

 droop and die off rapidly, and, on the 19th of that month, fearing I should soon 

 have none left, I sent about half-a-dozen to Mr. S. L. Mosley to figure for future 

 reference, as I had been quite unable to make them out. Mr. Mosley, however, at 

 once recognised them from figures or preserved larva? in his possession, previously 

 received from Mr. Gregson, as Agrotis Ashworthii ; and, on looking up the descrip- 

 tions, I found they were undoubtedly of that species. I had never thought of 

 Ashworthii in connection with them, -or should have recognised them long before. 

 Some hundreds of them must have hatched, but at the time I write not more than 

 one or two are alive, unless, indeed, friends to whom I gave some have been more 

 fortunate. On the same mountain, I took a specimen of the fine dipteron, Tabanus 

 sudeticus, of Zeller. — GrEO. T. Porritt, Highroyd House, Huddersfield : November 

 3rd. 1881. 



