NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 213 



the ' Entomologist,' vol. xlviii, p. 212, but, this is, I think, the first 

 notice of a spring emergence at large in England, and it would 

 appear, therefore, that the species has bred successfully in this 

 particular locality. — Ed.] 



PoLYGONiA c-ALBUM IN SHROPSHIRE. — This is, as I hopod and 

 expected, reappearing this season in Shropshire. Having been so 

 abundant in this county in 1917, it was hardly likely it would not 

 again, at all events, put in an appearance. I have caught specimens 

 in my garden, hovering over sweet-scented flowers, in tine condition 

 on August 2nd and 9th, and seen a few others. Hibernated 

 specimens occurred rarely in the early spring. It is to be desired 

 that this beautiful species should again reassert itself in plenty in its 

 old haunts in the western counties of England. — J. Cosmo Melvill ; 

 Meole Brace Hall, Shrewsbury, August 9th, 1918. 



Pyrambis cardui ABUNDANT IN CORNWALL. — I am Surprised that, 

 so far, no one has called attention to the great invasion of Pyrameis 

 cardui in May. It may have been confined to these parts. I saw it 

 first on May 20th, and during the remainder of the month it 

 abounded along the cliffs, playing about in groups of three and four 

 every few hundred yards, and was to be met with all over the 

 country in smaller numbers. The specimens were very bleached — 

 almost colourless. Larvae have since then abounded on thistle, and 

 on July 21st I took the first newly emerged specimens along with 

 P. atalanta and Vanessa io. — E. A. C, Stowell ; Fowey, Cornwall. 



Mesotype lineolata in Wiltshire.— Eeferring to your corre- 

 spondent's note on M. lineolata occurring inland (antea p. 161), I may 

 point out that this species is abundant, in both broods, on Marl- 

 borough Downs. — E. A. C. Stowell ; Fowey Grammar School, 

 Cornwall. 



Note on Rearing Hemaris fuciformis. — Last year I obtained 

 some wild-laid ova of H. fuciforviis on June 4th. These hatched out 

 on June 5th and 6th and the larvae went down on June 21st, 22nd, 

 and 23rd. The imagines emerged on May 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of 

 this year. — D. F. Taylor ; Hill Side, Godalming. 



Hyppa rectilinea, ab. — I obtained a very beautiful aberration of 

 H. rectilinea this spring from a wild larva. The coloration of the 

 insect is entirely jet-black and pale grey. The sepia-brown tints are 

 entirely absent, and the median area of the fore wings is very heavily 

 suffused with black, on which the reniform and orbicular spots stand 

 out in pale grey, the former being much the more distinct of the two. 

 The grey markings on the outer margin of the wing form at one point 

 a fairly conspicuous 2. I obtained the larva while pupa digging in 

 January ; it ceased hibernation early in March, duly pupated, and 

 the imago appeared at the end of May last. — (Rev.) Harold D. Ford ; 

 Thursby Vicarage, Carlisle. [Appears to be a modification of ab. 

 virgata, Tutt. — Ed.] 



Plusia moneta at Wanstead, — On July 27th, in the early even- 

 ing, I was searching a fence for " micros " and when stooping down 

 to box a specimen of Laverna stephensi, where the boughs of an oak 

 overhung, I noticed a good-sized moth quite at the bottom. Taking 



