82 



saw many others. Its peculiar neutral tint renders it difficult to 

 distinguish on the wing. 



Epirrita Dilutata. I met with this species among low 

 bushes near the lake the end of October. I captured several, and 

 it is apparently common there. — David Bruce, April 14, 1882. 



ACTIAS Luna. — A fine and fresh ? example of this beauti- 

 ful moth was taken on Staten Island, May 3, by Mr. Prentice 

 Mulford, of the New York Graphic. Is not this very early for 

 the appearance of the species? — EDITOR. 



Mr. a. R. Grote's Collection. — It will be a subject of 

 universal regret among Lepidopterists that this collection, con- 

 taining over 1200 types of North American species, should have 

 been suffered to leave this country. It has found its resting 

 place in the British Museum, and though it will, in some respects, 

 be fittingly placed, and will be under the worthy charge of that 

 able entomologist, Mr. A. G. Butler, it should, nevertheless, 

 have remained in the United States as a reference for fature 

 students. Had the collection been composed of old engravings, 

 broken china, or even of minerals and fossils, it would readily 

 have found a purchaser here. Why should the most useful and 

 practical branch of natural history be so ignored as it is by our 

 men of wealth, and when will the first steps be taken in New 

 York to found what would be one of its most instructive at- 

 tractions, a Museum of Entomology ? — EDITOR. 



Occurrences of Lepidoptera at Sea. — To the chief 

 officer of the ship Thalia — Mr. Zielke, recently in the port of 

 San Francisco — I am indebted for two large noctuae allied to 

 Erebus od^ra, which were taken on the 3d of December last at 

 sea, in latitude 37*^ south, longitude 52*^ west, which places the 

 locality ofT the mouth of the river La Plata, in South America, 

 about 250 miles from the nearest land. He also informed me 

 that there were many others round the lights in the cabin at the 

 time these were captured. There is no reason to doubt these 

 facts, as I went to the ship's log-book to ascertain the exact 

 locality, and there found a record of the circumstance. The oc- 

 currence is of interest as showing the facility with which insects 

 may be carried from land to land, across apparently impassable 

 distances. — R. H. Stretch. San Francisco, April 16, 1882. 



Larva of Gnoph^la Hopfferi. — As showing the prob- 

 able position of this species in a natural classification, the follow- 

 ing extract from a letter received by me from Lord Walsingham, 

 when he was on his way to England from the Pacific Coast, 

 several years ago, will prove of interest : " I send a single speci- 

 men of an insect emerged from the chrysalis to-day, July 16, 

 from pupa in one of my bottles. The larvae of this species, feed- 

 ing on a species of Alyosotis, were not uncommon on the sum- 

 mit of the Siskiyou Mountains (Northern California) in June. They 

 were undistinguishable from, or at least very closely resembling, 



