CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 105 



usual food-plants it feeds on a species of everlasting, which also serves 

 as a food-plant for a cannibal Noctua. In collecting larvae of V. cardui, 

 I casually placed one of these larvfe in the breeding-cage, and in the 

 course of two or three days was astonished at finding the latter had 

 eaten nearly all of its companions. — Jas. P. Cregoe ; Johannesburg, 

 Jan. 5th, 1894. 



Second Broods in 1893. — Seeing that several correspondents are 

 recording unusual second broods in 1893, I append a list of those that 

 have come under my notice. Agrotis segetum was common everywhere 

 during Aug., Sept., and Oct. A. exclamationis, some half dozen in 

 Suffolk during late Aug. and early Sept. ; and again at Winchmore 

 Hill on Sept. 28th and Oct. 14th, the last being perfectly fresh. A 

 freshly-emerged female Pieris rapa and its empty case were found on a 

 fence at Crouch End on Oct. 14th, and on the same evening a speci- 

 men of Boarmia rhomhoidaria at light, the latter a male, small, but 

 otherwise good. At treacle at "Winchmore Hill the following turned 

 up : — Leucania pallens (Sept. 25th), L. comma (Sept. 25th, 28th, and 

 Oct. 14th), Triphmna orbona (Sept. 25th, 26th, 28th, and Oct. 7th), 

 Caradrina morjtheus (Sept. 28th), C. cubicnlnris (Oct. 14th), Agrotis puta 

 (Oct. 14th), Xylophasia pohjodon (Oct. 18th). Besides the above, a 

 second brood of Acidalia incanaria was noticed in plenty on the fences 

 here on and about Sept. 10th. — Russell E. James; Chesterville, 

 Hornsey Lane, Jan. 22nd, 1894. 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



The Mild Season. — I found to-day, in a breeding-cage which has stood 

 since October in a cellar where no fire is ever made, a freshly emerged 

 Dasychira piidibunda (alive) and CucuUia verbasci (dead), in splendid con- 

 dition. I have never had any Lepidoptera emerge before in January, 

 although kept in the same place. — A. Jacobt; 7, Hemstall Rd., Jan. 31st. 



Mr. Butler enquires {aiite, p. 71) if Jan. 2l8t is not a very early date 

 for Hybernia leiicojjhcBaria. Under ordinary circumstances doubtless it is 

 so ; but in this abnormally warm winter it is only natural that such species 

 should emerge at an unusually early date. So I notice that Miss Maude 

 Alderson records this species as being well out on Jan. 17th at Worksop 

 {loc. cit.). Even in Scotland it was out at a still earlier date (Jan. 12th), 

 when I took a single specimen at rest. This was rather remarkable, as 

 coming so soon after the three days of intense frost which we experienced 

 from Jan. 6th to 8th, when the thermometer readings for the three suc- 

 cessive nights were respectively 5° above zero, 2° below zero, and 2° above 

 zero. But the frost departed as suddenly as it had come, and was suc- 

 ceeded by very mild weather. Last year I took H. leucoph(Earia on 

 Feb. 5th. Mr. Freir [I. c.) records the capture of Phigalia pedaria [pilo- 

 saria), as an " early occurrence," on Jan 20th, I took a specimen here 

 (Scotland) on the 21st, and last year took one on Feb. 3rd, also in Scotland. 

 On Jan. 22nd, a frosty night with brilliant moon, the whitethorn hedges 

 here were full of H. nipicapraria, which was then out in profusion ; last 

 year I took it here on Feb. let. Very probably the species I record were 

 out even earlier than the dates I give, as I did not search for them, and only 



ENTOM.— MARCH, 1894. I 



