NOTES OX NEW AND RARE BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. /O 



j\jr. Eedle's lot in Perthshire. DlanthcBcia irregularis has 

 been bred in this countiy from larvag feeding, as was last 

 year predicted, on a Caryophyliaceous plant, Silene otifes. 

 D. capsophilaf Barrettii and ccesia have each occurred in 

 their respective habitats, and compta has been found at 

 home in a new locality, the Isle of Man. Polia nigro- 

 cincta has been taken again in the larval state. A single 

 specimen of Crymodes exitlis is recoi'ded as having been 

 taken in Strath^lass in 1869, thus makin^^ the ninth or 

 tenth known British specimen. Xylom.yges conspicillaris 

 has been scarcer than usual at Worcester. More Xylina 

 furcifera have been captured beyond those mentioned in 

 our last volume. A fourth British X. Zinckenii has been 

 taken at Darenth. Agriphila sulphuralis seems to be be- 

 coming quite a suburban insect, captures of it being noted 

 from Erith, Hackney Marshes, Lower Clapton and Wands- 

 worth. Plusia orichalcea has been taken in Cornwall ; and 

 lastly, but not leastly (at any rate in point of size) Catocala 

 fraxini has visited the Regent's Park; and this reminds me 

 that the sight I had of this specimen (alive) taught me some- 

 thing of which I was previously entirely ignorant, namely, 

 that the creature is endowed, for some inscrutable reason, 

 with large fans (or rather in this particular instance with a 

 large fan) on its forelegs, after the fashion of certain Pyrales 

 and Geo7netrid(B — here is food for meditation ! 



Of Geometers, the most important capture of the season 

 has been Lythria purpuraria, which has moreover been 

 bred from the e^g, for the first time, in this country. Aci- 

 dalia ruhricata and rusticata have been duly announced as 

 occurring at Folkestone, thereby corroborating the respective 

 captures there some years ago of single examples of each of 

 these waves by my friend Mr. Lynch and myself. BoletoMa 

 fuliginaria has been captured at Blackfriars. The two rather 



