NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



269 



pupation ig certainly not the general habit of that species ; so perhaps 

 they may belong to some omnivorous Noctua which has accidentally 

 taken to the unaccustomed plant ; but, if so, why two of them, with 

 evidences of their having been more ! Should Mr. Baily's or my 

 specimen yield forth its imago, you shall be duly advised of the 

 occurrence. — H. Guard Knaggs; Camden Road, N.W., Aug. IBth, 1894. 



Unusual Pairing of Lepidoptera. — When collecting in an oak 

 wood a few miles from here, I saw a male Arciynnis pnphia in copula 

 with a female Thecln quercm. I am sorry to say, that, though I 

 secured the papJiia the T. quercm escaped, as I wished to preserve the 

 insects as they were. — Spotswood Graves ; Tenby, July 21st, 1894. 



[Other instances of unusual pairing have been recorded from time 

 to time, among which may be cited the following : — Atfacus cecropia, 

 male, and Sphinx lifimtri, female, Entom. xix. 136 ; TtEniocmnpa stabilis, 

 male, and T. gotJiica, female, Cerastis vaccinii, male, and Miselia oxy- 

 acanthcB, female, Euchlo'e cardamines, male, and Bapta temerata, female, 

 Xylophasia monoqlypha, male, and Hadena trifolii, female, Entom. xxi. 

 158, 188, 282.— Ed.] 



Abundance of Acidalia virgularia. — So numerous are the accounts 

 that one hears of the scarcity of Lepidoptera this summer, that the 

 occurrence of any species in profusion is quite a refreshing incident. 

 Nor have our London gardens afforded an exception to the prevailing 

 rule, and it is to such situations that I now more particularly refer. 

 Many of our usually common species have been singularly scarce; 

 Spilosoma hihricipeda and S. mentJiastri, Mamestra hrassica. and M. persi- 

 \;mi(e, and Euplexia Incipara, have, at any rate, so far as concerns my 

 own garden, been hardly seen ; and even that essentially garden 

 insect, Melanippe fuctuata, has certainly not exceeded its usual 

 numbers. But to this dearth we have had one notable exception : 

 Acidalia viniularia {incanaria) has been more or loss common through- 

 out the months of June and July, and during the latter half of the 

 last-named month abundant, four or five being seen at rest on as many 

 square feet of wall almost daily, and a tap on the Virginia-creepers or 

 other sheltering foliage dislodging numbers of the insect. So rapid are 

 the succession of broods of this species, that it is difficult to differentiate 

 the spring and summer emergences with any degree of certainty ; but 

 there can, I think, be little doubt that the examples seen in the earlier 

 part of June would be the true spring emergence, and that the larvse 

 resulting from it would have the advantage of the only really warm 

 weather that we have had to complete their metamorphoses ; and this 

 may possibly account for the profusion of the later broods. — E. Adkin ; 

 Lewisham, August, 1894. 



Note on Vanessa c-album. — In April last I caught an example of 

 F. c-album, and finding it a poor specimen liberated it, and watched it 

 hovering over a red currant bush in my garden here. On the last day 

 of June I found a nearly full-grown caterpillar on that very bush, which, 

 from the accurate description given in Newman's ' Moths and Butter- 

 flies,' I at once recognised as that of V. c-album. On July 3rd I 

 discovered a chrysalis of this butterfly on the same bush, hanging in 



ENTOM. — SEPT. 1894. "X 



