NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 187 



of trees the following October.— R. M. Pkideaux ; Woburn Place, W.C, 

 June, 1889. 



AcRONYCTA ALNi NEAR YouK. — Whilst entoniologising at Askham Bog, 

 near York, on the 13th instant, I netted a fine imago of Acromjcta alni. 

 It was hovering above my head among birch. — E. G. Potieu; 19, Price 

 Street, York, June 17, 1889. 



Caradrina QaADRiPUNCTATA, HYBERNATiNG. — With regard to Mr. 

 Blagg s note on C. quadripunctata {cabicalaris), ante, p. 1 62, it has opened 

 up a question about which, I suppose, few lepidopterists could give a 

 satisfactory answer, viz., How does this species pass the winter ? My 

 experience is that it is in the imago slate. It can be obtained tiiroughout 

 the winter in the stacks of hop-bine, so frequent in Kent, and occasionally 

 from thatcli. An Aberdeen lepidopterist wrote to me only this winter 

 about finding an imago in January or February, and asked me whether it 

 was unusual. I had no hesitation in answering in the negative. The 

 specimens obtained in the winter montlis are in equally good condition with 

 those obtained in tlie summer, and it suggests itself whether the larvae from 

 the summer brood feed up and emerge normally in late autumn and then 

 hybernate; certain it is tliat a part of the brood must generally do so. I 

 see Merrin's 'Calendar' gives the date of the imago as i\Iay to October. 

 Facts would lead one to substitute May to May, for I believe that good 

 specimens can be obtained every month in the year. — J. W. Turr ; 

 Ilayleigh Villa, Westcombe Park, S.E. 



Agrotis ctNERKA. — Ou tlie Olh of June I took a fine male specimen of 

 A<jrotis cinerea from a lamp-post near lieie; and ou the evening of the 9th 

 I took a fine variety of the same insect, with the outer half of the wings 

 dark, from a lamp-pust at Polegate.— H. G. Pla(;k ; 53, Buckingham 

 lioad, Brighton, June 13, 1889. 



Food of Nyssia zonakia. — In 188'2 I had a few larvae of Nyssia 

 zoitaria given to me, with instructions to feed them on yarrow [Achillea 

 inillefuliuiii). Accordingly I procured some well-seasoned leaves of this 

 plant, with which the larvae were supplied, but to my sorrow they refused 

 to feed upon it, and in the course of a week pined away and died. 

 Was it the journey that sickened them? or was it improper food? With 

 regard to the food-plant, the following may be of interest. Whilst collecting 

 on the Conway sand-hills, near the Penmaenmwr rocks, on June 18th, 1885, 

 I discovered the larvae of N. zonaria in abundance, feeding upon bird's-foot 

 trefoil [Lotus curniculatus). To make sure that tliey were feeding upon this 

 plant, some turf was cut, which contained both yarrow and trefoil. Upon 

 tliis the larvae were placed, and the result was that they ate every leaf of 

 the latter, but left the yarrow standing untouched. The larvae were tiien 

 supplied entirely with " bird's-foot trefoil, upon which they throve most 

 remarkably. I should add that the plants selected for food were obtained 

 from the coast, or from well-exposed situations; coarse, rank foHage was 

 never given them. I believe N. zonaria will also feed upon Ceiitaurea 

 niijra, but I have never tried it. — 11. Newstead ; Curator, Grosvenor 

 Museum, Chester, May, 1889. 



HypsirKTEs kubkrata in Aberdeenshire.— My wife took a very fine 

 dark form of this moth at re&t on the staircase of our house on May 20lh, 



