RECENT LITERATURE. 143 



as regards this species, since it seems to have a curious habit of 

 creeping and fluttering about among grasses and coarse herbage, so as 

 to be most difficult to capture ; yet it is hardly ever to be seen on the 

 wing. Dr. Wheeler says :— ' It creeps up through the herbage, and 

 dodges and sneaks about the lamp in a very troublesome way. I took 

 two, both of wbich came on nights so bad that nothing but a strict 

 sense of duty took me out ; indeed, on one of these nights, from 9 p.m. 

 till 2 a.m., only two moths came to my lamp. One of these was H. 

 palustris, the other Macrogaster arundinis. Of fifteen H. palustris taken 

 in the fen this year (1878), one only was taken flying, ten feet above 

 the ground, over a lamp. We all placed our lamps very low for this 

 species ; and some had two lamps — one high in the air, the other on 

 the ground ; in which case the latter always was the one sought by 

 H. palustris.' . . . There is an old specimen, of which the record seems 

 to be lost, in the collection of the late Mr. H. Doubleday, in Bethnal 

 Green Museum [rf. p. 380, where it is stated that tins example was taken 

 by Mr. English at Quy Fen in 1871] ; and in the cabinet of Mr. P. M. 

 Brigbt is anotber, labelled as having been taken at Eingwood, Hants, 

 flying by day, but without date of capture or name of captor. Two of 

 the more recent specimens of which 1 have any knowledge were ex- 

 hibited at a meeting of the Entomological Society of London in 

 February, 1898, by Mr. G. B. Boutledge. These, both of which are 

 females, were captured in 1897, fluttering among grass about 5 p.m., 

 in a meadow a few miles from Carlisle." 



Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm Pests 

 during the Year 1898, ivith Methods of Prevention and Remedy. 

 By Eleanor A. Ormerod, F. B. Met. Soc. &c. 8vo. pp. 138. 

 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. 1899. 



In this the twenty-second Beport there is a mass of information that 

 will certainly prove of much usefulness to the farmer and fruitgrower. 

 As regards the kinds of insect-attack during the year 1898, these 

 appear to have been more than usually varied. Altogether about 

 seventy sorts of infestation are mentioned, the majority of which are 

 species of Coleoptera or Lepidoptera. Amongst those attacks that 

 were more severe than usual, Aphides would seem to have held the 

 first place, while larva? of Pieris brassiccc and P. rapce occurred in 

 abnormal numbers. In some parts of the country Pulex irritans 

 apeared in strong force, and from certain localities was reported as a 

 plague. 



A rather troublesome caterpillar, which, by the way, has not been 

 previously much noticed, is that of Laverna atra. The larva of this 

 moth, we are told, effects considerable injury to apple-blossoms by 

 boring into the young growing shoots and eating the pith, thus cutting 

 off nourishment from the flower-buds, and causing the whole cluster 

 to droop and die. 



In the chapter on the "Murrain Worm" some interesting par- 

 ticulars are given of the larva of Chcerocampa elpenor, which, in Ireland, 

 is erroneously credited with causing sickness in cows. With regard to 

 this popular but mistaken belief in the harmful nature of the larva in 

 question, Miss Ormerod says: — "Methods of prevention and remedy 



