NOTES, CAPTDRES, ETC. 21 



variation in intensity of colour, some few only being slightly 

 lighter than their neighbours. The second change began 

 about twenty-eight clays after their birth, and was carried 

 through with ease and perfect health. About this time I 

 went for my annual holiday to the Isle of Man, leaving the 

 larvae feeding weW upon growing plants, in six large flower- 

 pots, in which they had plenty of room, and were in the open 

 air, simply covered with muslin. On my return, on the 21st 

 of June, from the island, to my disgust 1 found large numbers 

 dead, and others dying; this was during what, I expect, was 

 their last change of skin. Removing the dead ones, and 

 otherwise contributing to the comfort of the remaining 

 strong ones, I hoped to save them ; but no, they still died, 

 until my last disappeared. The effect was most peculiar, for 

 there was nothing left but loose skins; they seemed to have 

 had something akin to diarrhoea. Of the seven larvae of the 

 same species I brought from the island, which 1 fed separately 

 on food from their native locality, I reared four perfect 

 specimens. In other years I have found the same affliction 

 attend young larvae of P. nigrocincta, found in a state of 

 nature. We can only estimate the quantity we shall rear 

 when we get the larva in its last stage, and when it is brown 

 in colour. My chief object in sending these notes to the 

 'Entomologist' is that they may settle the question of whether 

 or no the larva hybernates. It has been stated that such is 

 the case. This is now proved not to be so. Another season 

 1 hope to succeed in rearing this species from the egg to its 

 perfect state. — James Lkather ; Manor Road, Liscard, 

 Birkenhead. 



Captures at Witherslack. — On the 21st of July Mr. 

 Hodgkinson and I went to Witherslack in the finest possible 

 weather, after a long spell of drought. We expected to find 

 a rich harvest of Lepidoptera under such seemingly favour- 

 able conditions; but what naturalist could ever truly foretell 

 his success or failure under apparently desirable or adverse 

 circumstances. We did not, as in former years, find any- 

 thing approaching the vast variety of either Macro- or 

 Micro-Lepidoptera, that flying or at rest absolutely bewildered 

 the eager collector. During the day a hot sun beating down 

 on the parched ground forced everything, except ourselves, 

 lo seek shelter; while at night, where the eye could command 



