NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 185 



normal time of emergence, I distributed the majority of the pupse 

 among my correspondents. I kept about a dozen, however, and 

 among tlie imagines I find one extremely beautiful male aberration. 

 The others are njore or less typical in both sexes, with the red 

 costal spot on the hind wings, in two instances, well developed. The 

 fore wings of the male aberration are much narrower than usual and 

 taper towards the apex. The marginal line of primrose spots is intact, 

 but the black ante-marginal band invades the wliole area outside the 

 discoidal cell, the normal median primrose being represented by very 

 small, asymmetrical blotches. The hind wings are normal, and with- 

 out the red costal spot. I assume this to be a transitory form in the 

 direction of var. hippocrates, Feld. (' Entomologist,' xxiv, p. 82). I 

 may add, as a warning, that the colour of one or two examples left 

 too long during my absence, under the influence of ainmonia, suffered 

 a change from clear primrose to a dull ochre, rather suggestive of 

 some var. burdigale.nsis, Trim., I have seen in collections abroad. — 

 H. Eowland-Beown ; Harrow -Weald, July 14th, 1918. 



Unusual Pupation op Zyg.^iina FiLiPENDUL.g3. — While walking 

 under the foot of St. Bees Head at high- water last June, I was 

 interested to observe a number of the cocoons of Z. filipendulcE 

 attached to the rocks and boulders at the foot of the cliff's, just 

 above high-water mark, within two or three yards of the waves. 

 Some of the larvae were also crawling over the boulders, preparing to 

 pupate. The nearest vegetation on the side of the cliff was perhaps 

 three or four yards above. As this species usually pupates on a grass 

 stem or twig of heather, perhaps the readei's of this Journal may 

 regard this method of pupation as unusual. Ghiasmia clathrata also 

 occurs in the hedgerows at St. Bees, and in that locality the ground 

 colour of the insect is invariably pure white. In my own locality, 

 near Carlisle, wherever this species occurs, the ground colour ranges 

 fi'om dirty white to an ochreous colour. On mentioning this fact to 

 an old entomological friend, he remarked that wherever he had taken 

 clathrata on the coast, he had noticed that the ground colour was 

 always a pure white, but that in inland localities it always tended 

 more or less to the ochreous shade. Does this expeHence agree with 

 that of other collectors ? — H. D. Ford ; Thursby Vicarage, Carlisle. 



Devastation of Oak Trees by Spring Larv.e and After. — 

 Some five weeks ago I wrote of the denudation of the oak trees in the 

 Tilgate Forest district (antea, 161). Tiien hardly a green oak leaf was 

 to he seen, now those same trees are leafing again and have much the 

 same appearance as they had in the middle of May before the attack 

 by the larvae commenced. It is to be hoped, therefore, that no serious 

 damage has been caused to the trees beyond possibly a temporary 

 cessation of growth. — Robert Adkin ; Eastbourne, July 6th, 1918. 



ToiiTRix yiRiDANA Eaten BY BiRDS. — Mr. Rowland-Brown's note 

 of the service done by starlings in the destruction of this pest {antea, 

 p. 162), brings to my mind that, at the last meeting of the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society, Mr. Harry 

 Mooi'e exhibited some four dozen pupae of Tortrix viridana that had 

 been taken from the gullet and crop of a recently shot jay.— Robert 

 Adkin ; July 6th, 1918. 



ENTOM. AUGUST, 1918. R 



