NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 285 



small dark form of H. clutata feed on heath (I suppose ling, 

 Calluna, is meant, and not heath, Erica ?). I believe that bilberry 

 is more likely to be the food-plant ; at any rate such is the case 

 with us. Both forms of the species occur here in profusion ; 

 larvae from woods, hedges, &c., of sallow, willow and other trees 

 producing generally the large, greenish, striped form ; and the 

 moorlands, and especially woods having a thick undergrowth of 

 bilberry, producing the small and nearly black, in many specimens 

 indeed quite black, form. There is usually plenty of ling growing 

 with the bilberry, but I am not aware that elutata ever feeds on it, 

 though being such a general feeder it may to some extent do so. 

 But the bilberry plants are alwtiys infested with its larvse. In 

 similar woods too, we get, along with the ordinary type, a very 

 dark form of Cidaria riissata, having a black central band on a 

 very dark reddish brown ground, and without any trace of the 

 usual slaty-gray. I have sometimes thought these were produced 

 either from the bilberry or ling, as I do not remember noticing 

 this particular form where those plants did not grow. — Geo. T. 

 PoEEiTT ; Huddersfield, November 1, 1882. 



Life Histoey of Emmelesia t^niata. — I have at last had 

 the satisfaction of breeding this handsome and most-difficult-to- 

 get insect from a dozen eggs which a female laid on the 20th of 

 July last year. They hatched during the second week in August ; 

 then I had to face the food difficulty, having for years tried to 

 rear this species and only once got one larva to feed up. I then 

 had tried ever}^ leaf, seed, and flower that grew near where the 

 moth occurred; but all to no purpose, until accident assisted me 

 so far then to that which has now led to success. I had picked 

 up some moss thinking it would be suitable for any larva to 

 change in. I was struck by seeing this particular moss having 

 leaves on the stem like a fern ; I put it under my glass ; 1 saw some 

 of the tip end of the leaves yellow and slightly eaten ; I then 

 found a young larva, the one noted above ; I thought — so far so 

 good, another year I will try again ; I placed the eggs all on a nice 

 bed of the Briiim. The larva kept slowly growing, feeding on the 

 dead leaves. When the moss began to flower they ate very little 

 of it. In October the larvse — some were half- grown and others 

 very small — laid up, and there they remained doubled up on the 

 stems until the middle of April ; at that time the moss was in 

 fine seed. The warmth of the greenhouse made them stir, and I 



