120 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



answer, as they all have adopted it. One more word. I fail to see 

 why the peculiar setting in England should only be confined to the 

 Lepidoptera : why do not collectors of other groups of British insects, 

 or even ornithologists, adopt each a peculiar way of mounting their speci- 

 mens to distinguish them from continental ones ? say, for example, the 

 bird collector might have all his birds stuffed with their beaks open or 

 one eye shut, or the coleopterist might mount his beetles with the two 

 hind legs raised in the air, &c., just to distinguish them from foreign 

 specimens. But, joking aside, let everybody follow his own inclinations 

 and taste in that respect ; to me, personally, a collection of Lepido- 

 ptera with drooping wings looks, to say the least, untidy and poorly 

 set. — M. Jacoby. 



Agrotis ashworthii reared from Ova. — Having occasion to visit 

 the Penmaenmawr locality for this beautiful insect, about the second 

 week in July, I spent an hour looking over the most likely grounds. 

 I only found one perfect insect, but saw several batches of ova. How- 

 ever, having learned from my experience of the previous season that 

 there is a greater chance of success with a moderate number, I only 

 took one batch. These hatched on, July 18th, and numbered seventy- 

 one. I tried to force them, feeding on sallow so long as it lasted. 

 They made very slow progress, though kept in flower-pots on the 

 kitchen mantelpiece. About thirty of the larvfe fed up before the 

 others, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that twenty-four or 

 twenty-five had gone down by the middle of October. The remainder, 

 about thirty, absolutely refused to feed up, and gradually died off, 

 being then only about half grown. On November 17th the first imago 

 made its appearance, and between that date and Dec. 18th I had the 

 pleasure of seeing twenty-five perfect specimens emerge. They vary 

 slightly, some being very dark, others very pale, with intermediate 

 forms. After the sallows were over I used knotgrass, groundsel, dock, 

 plantain, and at the very last, lettuce. This latter food they ate 

 freely, but it was rather too juicy for some of them, and they suc- 

 cumbed in the usual way. In my opinion the most successful method 

 would be to procure ova as early as possible, and force slightly, so as 

 to feed the larva up by the end of September at latest. — Robert 

 Tait, Jun., 15, Rectory Road, Crumpsall. 



Dragonflies of North London. — Apropos of the very interesting 

 article on dragonflies in 1896, by Mr. W. J. Lucas {mite, pp. 29-36), a 

 few remarks on the dragonflies of North London may possibly not be 

 unacceptable ; and though they are greatly inferior in number and 

 variety to those recorded by Mr. Lucas as occurring in Surrey, yet I 

 can remember the time, many years since, when they were more 

 numerous than at present, and when it was an every-day sight to 

 observe the natural economy of the iEschnidae, and of LihelMa 

 depressa emerging from the pupa, on the rushes in a pond in my 

 father's garden at Southgate. I have never enjoyed the same 

 facilities of observation since, and doubtless several localities have 

 been obliterated, and species have disappeared before the inroads 

 of the universal builder. 



Calopterijx.—M.3.ny years have elapsed since I last saw this genus 



