﻿44 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



(a male) is exceptionally dark on both wings. I have not seen, how- 

 ever, any tendency to a central band, though one or tw'o certainly 

 approach it. With the exception of a good many Lithophane (Xylina) 

 semibnmnea, I took very little else beside M. ocellaris last autumn, 

 and even M. gilvago was very scarce (only seven turning up). In 

 fact, I had very bad luck with all the Lepidoptera during 1914, and 

 gave most of my attention to the Hymenoptera, in which family, 

 owing to the continual fine weather, I was well rewarded. — 

 Hugh Percy Jones ; " Westwood," Great Shelford, Cambridge, 

 January 2nd, 1915. 



Araschnia levana in Herefordshire. — I was pleased to note 

 (Entom. xlvii. p. 325) that this interesting butterfly has turned up 

 again at Symonds Yat and the Forest of Dean since my capture of 

 May 28th, 1913. Apparently the species has established itself in 

 this country, and that locality, seeing that it was taken in numbers 

 this season. It would, however, be interesting to know if those 

 caught by Mr. Hughes and Mr. Oliver are of the first brood, as the 

 second brood are so different from the first, and appears about the 

 end of July, which is the time I note the specimens referred to were 

 taken. The specimen I took in May, 1913, is of the first brood, and 

 was identified by Mr. H. Eowland-Brown, and exhibited by him 

 before the Entomological Society of London, October 1st, 1913 (see 

 'Entomologist,' December, 1913, p. 336). Would Mr. Hughes and 

 Mr. Oliver kindly say if the specimens taken by them were var. 

 prorsa (2nd brood) ? — T. Butt Ekins ; Loxbere House, Windsor 

 Terrace, Penarth, December 12, 1914. 



Hadena atriplicis at Wicken. — Mr. Thurnall's short article in 

 the December ' Entomologist ' was specially interesting to me, inas- 

 much as I possess one — unhappily one only — Hadena atriplicis, 

 taken by myself at Wicken, in 1879. In June of that year I went 

 thither with my friend, the Eev. T. W. Daltry, and on our arrival, to 

 our dismay we found the fen deep in water, so that collecting there 

 was for the time impossible. We turned our attention to " sugaring " 

 in a small plantation, called " Johnson's Spinney," which, I think, 

 must be the same that Mr. Thurnall mentions ; and there, amongst 

 other things, mostly common, I was fortunate enough to obtain a fine 

 male atriplicis, which still, after more than thirty years, adorns my 

 collection. I only wish I knew where to get some more. — Chas. 

 F. Thornewill ; 15, S. Margaret's Eoad, Oxford, December 8th, 

 1914. 



Unusual Cocoons of Habrosyne derasa. — I have recently 

 observed an occurrence which seems to me so unusual as to be worth 

 recording. I have been breeding a number of larvEe of Habrosyne 

 derasa, taken at large, and have found no less than three cases in 

 which two larvae have formed a cocoon in common. The cocoons are 

 of normal form, but more extensively lined with silk than is common 

 with the species, and in each case the two pupa3 were lying side by 

 side in the one cocoon, with no division of silk or ridge between 

 them. The cocoons were formed in cocoanut fibi'e, and were, of 



