NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



275 



Spilosoiiia lubricijjeda var. zatima. Species of Plusia were strongly 

 attracted, and I found under a couple of lamps P. pulchrina, iota, 

 chrysitis, gamma, and Ahrostola tri2)lasia. While Dicranura vinula 

 was very abundant, the specimens were practically always female, 

 and these females seemed to wisli to lay the instant they were boxed. 

 I had always supposed that only male specimens of the Notodontidae 

 were attracted by liglit. In breeding Petasia nubeculosa this year 

 from the egg, I was much struck by the large variety of food-plants 

 which it readily eats. I first experimented with the plants growing 

 in the locality where the parent was obtained — sallow, aspen, bilberry, 

 and dock— the first two of which it seemed at times to prefer to 

 birch. It also ate heather, and I found that it would take greedily 

 lime, ash, hawthorn, willow, alder, plum, strawberry, &c. ; probably 

 it is as omnivorous as P. cassinea. This does not seem to have been 

 generally recorded, though I am told that Barrett has remarked on 

 its eating other food besides birch. — C. Mellows ; Bootham School, 

 York. 



Carnivorous Feeding of Platycleis brachyptera. — On July 

 3rd Mr. R. South was good enough to give me three living Ortho- 

 ptera, which he had obtained two days previously while trailing his 

 net over the heather at Oxshott, Surrey. One of them was Gompho- 

 cerus maculatus, and the others were undeveloped females of a species 

 of Locustidas. One of the Locustids had undergone a moult in the 

 glass-bottomed box in which it was enclosed, and when I looked at 

 it again, I found that it had eaten its own cast skin. On reaching 

 home, I turned out all three specimens into a good-sized fish-globe, 

 and kept them regularly supplied with fresh grass, upon which they 

 fed readily. After the lapse of several days, however, the Gompho- 

 cerus was noticed to be getting very sluggish in its habits, and the 

 next morning it was found to be dead and partly consumed ; later 

 on, one of the Locustids was actually observed to be eating the body 

 greedily. Mr. W. J. Lucas, who kindly examined one of the 

 Locustids for me, stated that it might safely be regarded as Platycleis 

 brachyptera, as that species was known to occur at Oxshott, and as 

 P. roeselii, the only other species to which it could possibly belong, 

 had not been recorded from that locaHty. — Herbert Campion; 

 58, Ranelagh Road, Ealing, July 21st, 1911. 



Lepidoptera of the Brecksand District. — In the ' Entomo- 

 logist ' for March (vol. xliv. p. Ill) appeared an interesting note on 

 the Lepidoptera of the Brecksand district, near Tuddenham, in 

 Suffolk, by the Rev. J. E. Tarbat. It may be of interest to supple- 

 ment this by an account of a brief visit to the same locality paid by 

 me this year from June 13th to 16th. I have often before worked 

 this district by day, and, indeed, accompanied Mr. Tarbat on one 

 occasion last year, but have not previously been a))lo to do any night 

 collecting there. The weather was cold, windy, and overcast, which 

 may account for the absence of Acidalia rubiginata, and Agrophila 

 tra'bealis, both of which I took on the same dates last year. Sugar 

 was a complete failure, and the following list represents almost 

 entirely the species captured by working hedgerows, rougli fields, etc., 

 with a lamp between dusk and moonrise. Considering this and the 



