﻿NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. G3 



which was replaced by a kind of brownish-buff. The pupae are angu- 

 lated, after the usual manner of Vanessids, and are of a mottled or 

 variegated brown. Given a favourable winter and immunity from the 

 attacks of the Forest ants, there seems no reason why levana should 

 not be seen again in the coming season. — G. B. Oliver; Park 

 Road, Sutton Goldfield, February 16th, 1915. 



Lepidoptera at Heather Bloom. — While at Penmaenmawr in 

 July last I found that sugar, as an attraction for moths, was a failure. 

 On several occasions, however, insects were fairly plentiful on heather 

 bloom. Among other species Agrotis ashivorthii, A. lunigera (in 

 numbers), A. lucernea, Mamestra fiirva, and Acidalia coutiguaria 

 visited the heather. — R. Tait, jun. ; Roseneath, Ashton-on-Mersey, 

 Cheshire. 



Eurymene dolabraria in Scotland. — In looking through South's 

 ' Moths of the British Isles,' I notice that E. dolabraria is hardly 

 known to be found in Scotland. It may be of interest to state that 

 early in September, 1911, I took several larvae on a beech hedge near 

 Killin, Perthshire, N.B. Surely this cannot have been a casual 

 occurrence? — J. G. Bryans ; Arundel House, Hayling Island. 



Tinea misella in Gloucestershire. — Amongst some of my 

 last year's captures submitted to W. B. Meyrick, F.R.S., he has 

 referred a specimen taken at about 8.30 p.m. on Stroud Railway 

 Station on May 21st, 1914, to this species. It appears to be new to 

 our local list. — C. Granville Clutterbuck, F.E.S. ; 23, Heathville 

 Road, Gloucester, February 3rd, 1915. 



Mellinia (Xanthia) ocellaris. — Mr. Jones is to be congratu- 

 lated on his large capture of Xanthia ocellaris at Great Shelford 

 {antea, p. 43). In point of numbers it is probably a record for any 

 single locality in this country, and is certainly, so far as the records 

 and my personal knowledge go, the first occasion on which any 

 number exceeding two or three have been taken anywhere outside a 

 restricted area in the Thames Valley. Excluding this last named 

 district, an examination of the records in our entomological journals 

 shows that twenty-two examples in twenty-two years have been 

 captured from ten localities, all in our east and south-east counties, 

 with the exception of one in 1889 from Coxhame, Gloucester. Two 

 only of the twenty-two were of the banded form — ah. intermedia, 

 Habich. The salmon-pink insect is no doubt a typical ocellaris, Bkh. 

 which varies a good deal in its ground-colour. The male with dark 

 wings if without any trace of ochreous or reddish, and with the pale 

 veins prominent, is ab. lineago, Gn., a rare form in Britain. The 

 food-plant of the species in Central Europe is always given as black 

 and Lombardy poplar. In the Thames Valley it is quite certainly 

 the hybrid Populus serotina. Aspen, sallow and common elm have 

 also been suggested, but without any corroborative details except in 

 the case of the first named. Mr. Jones's note gives good ground for 

 adding wych elm to the list, but it is an addition which cannot be 

 regarded as surprising, when it is remembered that the congeners 

 gilvago and fulvago both feed on poplar and elm, though the more 



