NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 49 



that the use of the term " extraordinary " was, to some extent, prompted 

 by a desire on my part to please Mr. Cross, by leading him to suppose that 

 his capture was of more than ordinary interest.— H. Goss ; Berrylands, 

 Surbitou Hill. 



Agrotis agathina, &c. — With respect to the question of Mr. Butler 

 (Entom. 15), as to the usual way to capture this species, it is, as 

 Mr. Carrington says, by searching the flowers of Calluna vulgaris with a 

 lamp at night ; but after some experience, I am decidedly of opinion that 

 there is even a better way, if indeed one could but master the initial 

 difficulty. I first commenced to search for A. agathina on the Shirley 

 Hills in 1885; in that season I could not find it; in 1886 I got three 

 specimens; in 1887, eighteen ; and last year, one only. It is probably well 

 known to most readers of the ' Entomologist,' that it was the custom of the 

 London collectors of the last two generations to come to Shirley, especially 

 for this species, and I have been repeatedly told that fifteen or twenty 

 years ago the larvae could be swept from heather in the spring in hundreds, 

 together with those of Noctua castanea, Scodiona helgiaria, Aspilates strigil- 

 laria, &c. It is very different now, and the curious circumstance is, that 

 whilst A. agathina and the two Geometers are very rare, castanea appears 

 to be quite as common as in the old days. As above stated, I searched un- 

 successfully for the species during 1885, and for several evenings in 1886, 

 until one night I turned my lamp upon a fine bush of bloom and saw 

 a sight that electrified me : there were two agathina and one red castanea 

 upon it ; the agathina were apparently quiet, and merely noting that they 

 were male and female, I proceeded to box my castanea, which was just on 

 the point of leaving. Having effected my object, I turned back to where 

 the agathina should have been and found them gone, but within six feet of 

 the spot I got three other specimens, all males. In the following year, 

 after several nights unsuccessful work, I took a freshly-emerged female. 

 Mindful of my former experience, I searched well the heath round her, and 

 found within a small space, five males. A few nights after this, I took 

 four specimens close together, males again, and have no doubt there was a 

 female in the neighbourhood. I feel certain tliat if a virgin female was 

 bred and placed in a muslin-covered box, amongst the heather, in a locality 

 where the species occurred, she would attract to her, freely, the males ; but 

 there is the rub ! the successful breeding of agathina has been solved by but 

 few, and it is no easy thing to obtain one. 1 believe the species has been 

 bred somewhat freely, of late years, by some of our Scotch collectors 

 residing at Perth, and possibly they may have tried assembling for it. 

 Perhaps they will give us their experience in capturing the species. — 

 W. G. Sheldon ; Rose Cottage, Addiscombe. 



Dasycampa rubiginea in Somerset. — On November 13th last, I took 

 a fine and fresh specimen of this moth at ivy. A careful search on several 

 succeeding evenings failed to discover another. This is the second I have 

 taken in this county. — (Rev.) J. Seymour St. John; Baltonsborough, 

 Glastonbury, November 20, 1888. 



Amphidasys betularia, var. — Mr. J. Arkle says (Entom. xxi. 3l6i, 

 that while collecting in the Delamere Forest, he came across a matter which 

 has been considered of some importance, viz., a type female and a black 

 male of Amphidasys betularia in copula. I may say that similar unions 



ENTOM. — FEB. 1889. F 



