64 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



respectively. This price must have been either a good deal too little 

 or a great deal too much, probably the latter. Most of your old readers 

 are doubtless aware that but three captures of this species have been 

 recorded. The first, an imago, was discovered by my good friend the 

 late Mr. Henry Doubleday, at Ongar Park wood, in June, 1839 ; and 

 another was taken in the same locality in June, 1841 (see Humphreys 

 and Westwood, vol. i. p. 73). It then disappeared for nearly twelve 

 years, when a solitary larva was beaten from poplar at Halton, Bucks, 

 and was duly recorded ('Zoologist,' 4336) in the autumn of 1853, and 

 again in the spring of 1854, thus : — " Note on Ghiphisia crenata. — The 

 larva taken by me at Halton, on poplar, on the 18th of August, 1853, 

 and supposed to be G. crenata, produced that insect on the 4th of 

 March, 1854, and which was exhibited by Mr. Douglas at the April 

 meeting of the Entomological Society. — (Signed) Joseph Greene ; 

 49, Stephen's Green, Dublin, April 15th, 1854" ('Zoologist,' 4336). 

 That was forty years ago, since which date there does not appear to 

 be any notice of further captures. Here we have an indigenous British 

 insect, the origin of which nobody doubts, which has, apparently, two 

 broods a year, which in all likelihood might be bred as freely as the 

 rest of its family, if the chance occurred, whose larva is most con- 

 spicuous, and whose food is found all over the country, which has 

 escaped the vigilance of the collecting fraternity up to date. Still we 

 all know that insects do " disappear" (what a capital word to express 

 our own ignorance !). Just to give a few examples : — There was Sesia 

 chnjsicliformis, of which Francillon, in days long gone by, took a single 

 specimen, which remained undetected till Brewer found it, and " con- 

 signed it to the undignified depths of his 'bacca-box " ; and yet this 

 pretty little clearwing had been flitting about the Folkestone Warren 

 in comparative abundance, for years and years, quite unnoticed 

 and unmolested. Then there was Clostera anachoreta, discovered in 

 the neighbourhood of Salisbury by Mr. Spratt, who took two speci- 

 mens some forty years before Mr. Sidney Cooper beat a couple of 

 larvae from sallow at Saltwood, Kent (beating may be an unscientific, 

 happy-go-lucky method of collecting, but still it is very useful). Then, 

 again, Diantlicecia albimacula, discovered by Mr. Bydden sitting on a 

 post near Birchwood, Kent, remained unique for goodness knows how 

 long, chiefly because collectors, perhaps misled by Boisduval, did not 

 know the time of year to look for it, or the way to go to work. The 

 case of Erastria venustula — which "disappeared" at first for forty 

 years, and afterwards for fifteen more, owing to our ignorance of its 

 habits — is too well known to require repetition. Numerous other 

 instances might be quoted, but I have already occupied too much of 

 your valuable space. I will, however, just add that in my opinion 

 there is no earthly reason why the lost Glyphisia should not again be 

 found, if sought for carefully, perseveringly, and intelligently. — H. 

 Guard Knaggs ; Folkestone, January, 1894. 



Cerostoma costella and C. radiatella — This season I have had a 

 large experience with the former, and found it most abundant, almost 

 exclusively among nut : I swept some hundreds of grand forms off the 

 dead twigs. If anyone wants specimens, I have them. Of C. radiatella 

 I only took very few, not over half-a-dozen. There was only one oak 



