165 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, CAPTURES, &c. 



Chcerocampa celerio at Berkley. — In November last a 

 young man brought me a specimen of Chcerocanvpa celerio, which 

 he said he had found on the pavement in this town one evening, 

 just as it was getting dark. Is not this a late occurrence for this 

 rare and handsome species ? — James Borer ; High Street, 

 Berkley, May 19, 1885. 



Note on certain Agrotid^. — In reply to Mr. Tutt's 

 question (Entom. xviii. 94) relative to the identity of Agrotis 

 tritici, A. aquilina, and A. ohelisca, as an old entomologist 

 who knows the larvae of these three species, I can say, for the 

 information of any who do not, that they cannot well be mistaken 

 for one another. Thus A. trltlcl larva is about an inch and a 

 quarter long, cylindrical, with the ends reduced, dirty, colourless, 

 grub-like, slightly glaucous, with hardly any markings ; when 

 just changed is dirty glass-like; it can always be found upon 

 our sandy coast lands, wherever Cerastium grows, buried at the 

 roots, in May. A. aquilina larva is an inch and a half long, 

 cylindrical, slightly reduced at second and last segments ; this is 

 more striped than are the larvae of the genus Agrotis generally ; 

 sometimes these stripes are very faint on the dorsal region ; the 

 broadest stripe is on the side, below which is another broad 

 stripe, dark, dirty greenish above the spiracles. A. ohelisca is 

 fully an inch and a half long, thickly cylindrical, having a broad 

 dorsal streak of rich purplish brown, almost covering the back 

 when seen from above. I took and bred upwards of fifty when 

 last in Ireland ; they are very fine, well-marked specimens. I got 

 them by clearing all the vegetation and soil off the whole face of 

 a slightly stratified rock in Dublin Bay, stripping ledge after 

 ledge from the bottom upwards, securing one larva for every one 

 or two square yards worked. The tide washed the base of the 

 rocks. As regards the Shetland forms of so-called A. cursoria, 

 all which I have seen have turned out to be A. tritici, not one 

 A. cursoria amongst them. Mr. Tutt's illustrations of Gnoplios 

 ohscurarla and Boarmia repandata do not apply, as they are more 

 geological than geographical varieties. I can take the former 

 of almost any chosen shade around here, by deciding where to 

 work — even within a short walk on to another geological 



