814 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



had hybernated in little webs accommodating one as a rule, but 

 sometimes two — emerged, and began eating the early buds of 

 the hawthorn. My first visit of the season to the Wallasey 

 sandhills occurred on May 12th. This locality, as your readers 

 are doubtless aware, is famous as the habitat of Nyssia zonaria. 

 For several years joast it has not been a common insect there, 

 and, on the occasion of the visit referred to, I considered 

 myself fortunate in taking a fine male and female — bringing 

 the recorded captures of the season, for the time, up to no more 

 than eight. The male was at rest on a catkin of the dwarf 

 willows which clothe many a hollow and crest of the sandhills ; 

 the female was busy laying her eggs on a dead ragwort stem. 

 These eggs, I am sorry to say, proved infertile. Fresh and 

 numerous specimens of Mesotype virgata — a moth with very 

 butterfly-like habits — skipped among the short herbage; but my 

 chief object was the capture of Taniocampa opima. Finding 

 the dwarf sallows so well in bloom, I decided to hire a lantern, 

 and indulge in a lonely examination of the catkins after night- 

 fall. Whilst on my way to the village, however, I had the good 

 fortune to meet with a local entomologist. This gentleman 

 most kindly put me on the right track for TcBiiiocampa opima. 

 The insect, he said, was most probably over, — at any rate the 

 sallows, from their very abundance, were not worth working. 

 Eggs, however, were doubtless to be had near a certain part of 

 the coast-line, and thither I was kindly conducted. No one 

 would expect them on the dead stems of ragwort, and far away 

 from the sallows ; but there they were, in batches of a dull 

 brown colour, which showed they had been deposited some time, 

 as they are white when freshly laid. The parent moth can then 

 be discovered at the root of the plant. A batch or two satisfied 

 me, especially as the larvae are considered to be difficult to rear. 

 However, I lost only a small percentage of the caterpillars after 

 hatching, and I have every reason to hope that the remainder 

 pupated well. The dead ones succumbed to a flabby, dropsical- 

 looking state, which attacked them on entering their last stage. 

 A few captures of the lovely Nomophila ostrinalis and a good 

 beetle — Cicindela hyhrida — closed a most interesting day. 



Whitsuntide found me in the charming Vale of Llangollen. 

 On the opposite hillside, whilst standing under the ruins of 

 Abbey Crucis, I could look into the birch-wood where Sesia 



