354 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of Imnianata were taken amongst alder (many of them beaten 

 from tlie branches), I have an impression that its larva feeds 

 upon it; and I failed to find a specimen of the species 

 where alder did not grow. — Geo. T. Porrilt ; Huddersjield^ 

 October 18, 1869. 



Autumnal Brood of Dianthuecia capsophila. — Four speci- 

 mens of Capsophila (three males, one female) have appeared 

 in my breeding-cages during the last month (September), 

 The larvse which produced the moths were captured at 

 Douglas in July, and became pupae about the end of that 

 month : these have been kept in a room without fire, with a 

 western aspect, and certainly in no way forced. The bulk of 

 the brood are still in the pupa state, and 1 have no doubt 

 will reuiain so until next May or June. I have for years 

 past taken Capsophila at large and fresh from the pupa, 

 tliroughoiit the months of May, June, July and August, and 

 have supposed them all to be of one brood, of irregular ap- 

 pearance, produced from larvge of the previous year ; but it 

 now seems probable the autumnal specimens are the product 

 of the larvffi of the same spring. Still the species cannot be 

 called double-brooded, as assuredly larvae hatched in Sep- 

 teuiber and October could not feed up the same year, or 

 indeed feed at all, as there are neither flowers nor seeds on 

 the Silene plants at this season. Neither is it probable that 

 some individuals of the species pass the winter in the egg 

 and some in the pupa state. As, however, there is no reason 

 to doubt that this autumnal production of abortive moths 

 does occur naturally and constantly, it would appear that the 

 habits of the insect are to some extent at war with the con- 

 ditions in which it is now placed. Is it a very improbable 

 guess that, under climatal conditions slightly different from 

 those of the British Islands at the present period, the species 

 has formerly been double-brooded or would become so ? and 

 that either extinction or such further variation as will bring 

 it into exact accordance with present conditions, awaits the 

 species? The Atlantic-fauna theory has perhaps followed 

 the Island of Atlantis and almost disappeared beneath the 

 waves of time; but there are still, so to say, scraps of floating 

 wreck on the surface, in the curious localization and geo- 

 graphical distribution of certain species, of which Capsophila 

 is one, being confined, so far as I know, to the south-eastern 



