' NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 43 



been an assiduous attendant all through the season at the 

 nocturnal assemblages on ivy, though with but indifferent success. 

 I have found Miselia oxyacanthce and Cerastis vaccinii in greatest 

 profusion, and I have taken a fair number of Orthosia lota and 

 O. macilenta, together with some individual specimens of Xyliiia 

 rhizolitha, Scopelosoma satcllitia, Phlogoiihora meticulosa, Xanthia 

 ^erruginea, Anchocelis pistacina ; and of Geometry, Cidaria miata, 

 Oporabia dilutata, and Cheimatohia hrumata. The moth which 

 has most persistently refused to appear in anything like fair con- 

 dition is 0. macilenta, and X. ferriiginea has been almost equally 

 refractory. I can imagine no means of collecting so exciting as 

 that afforded by ivy ; there is not the trouble and discomfort, to 

 my mind, always more or less accessory to sugaring. A sticky- 

 pot, a brush with its handle drenched in treacle and rum, every- 

 thing about you more or less sticky, and after all this the chance 

 of no sport. Of course you may get nothing, and constantly do 

 get nothing on ivy, but you do not feel so justly aggrieved in the 

 case of ivy as in that of sugar. A small pair of steps, a lantern, 

 and a store of glass-top boxes, and you are ready. Eagerly you 

 scan the ivy blossoms. With regard to weather, I have found the 

 most productive nights to be mist}^ and dark, with a slight breeze. 

 It is positively useless to examine ivy on moonlight nights, at 

 least I have found it so. I do not know whether any real reason 

 is assigned why ivy blossom should be so fatally attractive to 

 moths ; is it the irresistible influence of intoxication ? I shall 

 be glad to see in your interesting columns any explanation or 

 reason as a solution why ivy should prove so manifest an attrac- 

 tion to the insect world. — C. W. Lubbock; Leesons, Chislehnrst, 

 November, 1881. 



Lepidoptera at Ivy. — Although an observer of insects for 

 many years I never caught a moth at ivy-bloom till the middle of 

 this month (November, 1881). The fine mild weather has tempted 

 me to go, lantern in hand, during the last few nights ; and although 

 I have been able to spare but very little time my success has been 

 very gratifying to me. I have caught, amongst others, the follow- 

 ing: — Xylina semibrunnea, X. pietrificata, X. rhizolitha, Orthosia 

 lota, Scopelosoma satellitia, Cidaria Psittacata, Phlogopliora meti- 

 culosa. — W. Macmillax ; Castle Gary, Somerset, Nov., 1881. 



Cerostoma asperella. — It is with pleasure I record the cap- 

 ture, in September last, of the above rare and lovely Tineina in 



