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ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, CAPIURES, &c. 



Soaring Habit of Vanessa atalanta. — With regard to 

 Mr. Martin J. Harding's note (Entom. xviii. 51), my impression, 

 gathered from my own observation, is that V. atalanta is impelled 

 to a more soaring flight during hot seasons than during cooler 

 summers. The first occasion on which I noticed its soaring 

 flight was about the middle of September, 1876, when, as I was 

 taking a ramble through the fields at Ashmore Park, about three 

 miles from Wolverhampton, I saw it in some plenty skimming 

 over the tops of the oak trees, greatly resembling, in flight, 

 Apatura iris. They darted through the air with a rapid motion 

 high above the tops of the trees, and then, darting suddenly 

 down on to the clover flowers in the field below, they rested for 

 a moment, and then took another flight over the tops of the trees. 

 While resting on the flowers was the only chance given for a 

 capture. During August and September of that season it was 

 very hot. Although I have seen V. atalanta in some plenty in 

 more recent seasons, I have not observed such a soaring flight as 

 on that occasion. — Thos. Hill; March End, Wednesfield, near 

 Wolverhampton. 



GoNEPTERYx RHAMNi IN DORSETSHIRE. — I recommeud Mr. 

 Mansfield (Entom. xvi. 271; xvii. 271) to read Mr. Mansel 

 Pleydell's ' Flora of Dorset,' and Newman's ' British Butterflies.' 

 The larva possibly feeds on blackthorn as well as on buckthorn. 

 In the forthcoming " Lepidoptera of Dorset" it will be recorded 

 as one of the commonest butterflies. — C. W. Dale ; Glanvilles 

 Wootton, Sherborne, Dorset, February, 1885. 



Luperina dumerilii. — In reply to Mr. Hodgkinson's enquiry 

 (Entom. xviii. 54), I beg to say that I have a specimen of this 

 moth, which was captured in 1858 in the Isle of Portland, by 

 Mr. William Farren, of Cambridge. In Stainton's ' Manual,' 

 i. 206 (1857), it is said that " one specimen only has occurred, in 

 the Isle of Arran"; and in Newman's 'British Moths,' p. 297 

 (1869), we read that "two specimens of the moth are said to 

 have been taken in the Isle of Portland, by Mr. Seeley ; one of 

 them is in Mr. Bond's collection." This, doubtless, refers to 

 Mr A. F. Sealy, now in South India, who certainly had the two 

 specimens, as I well remember, though I rather doubt whotlier 



ENTOM. — MARCH, 1885. L 



