CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 257 



Attempting to approach closer to the tree, I provoked hostilities on the part 

 of the wasps, and was compelled to beat a hasty retreat. What I wished 

 to ascertain was the nature of the attraction, which I feel convinced was 

 not sugar, as I could see no trace of that substance on the tree. This tree 

 would have been one of the last I should have selected for sugaring, there 

 being many others in the immediate neighbourhood admirably adapted for 

 that purpose. Unfortunately, I was not able to continue my investigations 

 further, as the call of tbe great City close by could not be disregarded. — 

 Ernest Cornell ; 6, Vernon Road, Leytonstone, E. 



[Probably the bark of trunk had been injured in some way, and the 

 butterflies were attracted by the exuding sap. — Ed.] 



Vanessa atalanta. — I have hever known V. atalanta to be so abun- 

 dant during the last thirty years as it is this season. It appears equally 

 numerous over the greater part of the country. I have found it the com- 

 monest species of butterfly, excepting Pieris brassica and P. rapes, in Staf- 

 fordshire, Essex, and Sussex ; and I hear of its abundance in Yorkshire 

 and other counties. In consequence of the present dry state of the 

 country, this beautiful insect is a common object in crowded streets and 

 thoroughfares, floating over and resting on the freshly watered roadways in 

 such numbers as to attract the attention of the usually unobserving public. 

 I think there can be but little doubt that there are two if not more broods 

 of this species during the season. The hybernated specimens deposit eggs 

 in May and June, which produce imagines at the end of July and August, 

 these early examples being undoubtedly the parents of those that emerge in 

 September (and perhaps October) ; otherwise, how are the small larvae 

 which occur during September to be accounted for, as they are certainly not 

 the offspring of the hybernated butterflies? And, further, I thiuk I have 

 made notes (not now at hand) of finding larvae in October. Therefore it is 

 highly probable that a succession of broods takes place from July till late 

 autumn. — F. W. Frohawk ; September, 1899. 



Abraxas (Zerene) ulmata at Brighton. — I captured one specimen 

 on a wall, hardly three hundred yards from the town, in July last. — Alan 

 W. Cardinall. 



NONAGRIA SPARGANII AND XaNTHIA OCELLARIS IN SUFFOLK. Though 



rather late, it may be of interest to record the occurrence of these two 

 species in the above county. In September, 1893, whilst sugaring near 

 Woodbridge, I took an insect which I was unable to identify, and I placed 

 it with A', gilvago and X. ferruginea, supposing it must be a variety of one 

 or other of these two moths. I now find it to be undoubtedly X. ocellaris. 

 It agrees entirely with the description given in Barrett's new work, haviug 

 the white dot at the base of the reniform stigma, and the more sharply 

 angulated fore wings, which at ouce separate it from X. gilvago or X. ferru- 

 ginea. N. sparganii I took in July, 1897. Whilst searching the stems of 

 Typha latifolia, I turned out a green caterpillar, which subsequently 

 pupated, and the imago emerged in the following August. Not knowing 

 any other green caterpillar to inhabit the stems of T. latifolia except 

 N. cannce, I confused it with this latter moth. It proves, however, to be 

 N. sparganii, which species, I believe, has not hitherto been recorded from 

 Suffolk. I have shown both these moths to Mr. Arthur Cottam, of Wat- 

 ford, who very kindly helped me in their identification. — (Rev.) A. P. 

 Waller ; St. May Street, Bridgwater, Somerset. 



ENTOM. — OCTOBER, 1899. 2 A 



