NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 275 



Food for Bombyx rubi. — The absence of proper food-plants 

 is sometimes a difficulty with London lepidopterists. I have 

 just been rearing Bomhyx rubi larvae on knotgrass {Polygonum 

 aviculare), to which tliej' take readil3\ Perhaps this fact will be 

 useful to some of our London friends. — J. W. Tutt. 



NoTODONTA BicoLOR. — It may be as well to put on record all 

 the specimens that have been taken in England, and who are the 

 possessors, as I have seen other series of this insect years ago in 

 collections as British. As near as I can ascertain, seven were 

 taken at Burnt Wood, Staffordshire ; one by a Mr. John Smith, 

 of Manchester ; Miss Carter, of Manchester, got one, and Mr. 

 Evans, of Derby, has it. Six were taken by Mr. Charlton ; one 

 female laid eggs, from which seven moths were bred, and they 

 were distributed as follows : — Sidebotham 2, Doubleday 1, Mr. 

 Burney 1, H. 0. Hammond 1, C. G. Barrett 1, J. B. Hodgkin- 

 son 3, from J. Chappell ; Harwood 4 also, from C. Campbell, 

 of which two went to Mr. Burney, two to Curzon ; Dr. Mason 

 has 1 King got from Charlton ; and Mr. Evans has 1 Carter 

 got from Smith, making 14 in all. — J. B. Hodgkinson; Ashton- 

 on-Ribble. 



DiCRANURA Bicuspis, Bovkh. — A short time ago Capt. Vipar 

 called my attention to the discrepancies between the existing figures 

 and descriptions of the larva of this insect. I was thus led to 

 investigate the subject; but it proves to be involved in so much 

 confusion, that further information from those able to supply it, 

 would be very desirable. Setting aside the description and 

 figure of Borkhausen and Hiibner, which are considered to be 

 entirely erroneous, we find that Ochsenheimer and Freyer 

 describe a birch-feeding larva with two conspicuous black spots 

 on the back of the head, and with the dorsal stripe distinctly 

 interrupted in the third segment. On the other hand, Boisduval, 

 Bambur, Graslin and Duponchel say nothing about the spots 

 on the back of the head, represent the dorsal streak as con- 

 tinuous, and state that the larva feeds in preference on beech. 

 It is obvious that they cannot be speaking of the same larva. 

 According to Koch and Speyer {teste Kaltenbach), the larva 

 of Dicranura fwrcula (a species confounded with D. hicuspis by 

 some of the earlier authors) feeds on beech and copper beech, 

 although it is well known that sallow is its ordinary food ; 

 Ochsenheimer 's statement that D.J'urcula feeds also on poplar 



