COLLECTING BRITISH CLEAR-WINGED LEPIDOPTERA. 101 



were as follows : out of twenty-four pupae carefully taken on 

 May 14tli from the sticks, I only obtained nine imagines ; out of 

 these two were crippled, and the others were not of bright 

 colour. Out of twenty-four sticks placed in a cage with holes 

 downwards, and covered in two inches of sand, I obtained twenty- 

 three perfect specimens and but one cripple. These emerged 

 during June from ()th to 10th. ... I may say that in no 

 instance did the larvse reach more than ten inches in the sticks 

 from the root." It is also said that this larva frequently feeds in 

 stems of willow and sallow, so thin that it could not be believed 

 to inhabit so small a space. 



Scioptewn tabaniformis (= asiliformis = vesplforme). — This 

 moth has occurred so rarely in this countr}^ that it can hardly be 

 considered a British species. It is said to occur in June, and 

 the larvse feed upon the roots of aspen and poplars. 



Sesia scoUiformis. — To obtain the specimens of this moth as 

 they emerge from pupse, means rising by dawn of day, and 

 watching closely the trees known to be affected by this species. 

 I have in two localities seen such trees, which were in each case 

 large, old, rough-barked birches. The one was in the wood, on 

 the right of the river, about a mile or so west of Llangollen. 

 They were the same trees that were worked by Ashworth, 

 Greening, Gregson, and Cooke. It was the latter who showed me 

 the spot ; but although we worked hard on several mornings, we 

 saw no trace of the moths nearer than one or two pupa-cases pro- 

 truding from the little holes in the bark from which they had 

 emerged. The other locality was at the very top of the 

 Black-wood of Rannoch, where there are many such trees 

 affected. There, too, I saw in another season empty pupa- 

 cases, but failed to get the moths. They have a curious habit, 

 Mr. Cooke told me, of jumping backwards before taking flight 

 when disturbed, which habit Mr. Birchall told me also obtained 

 with S. musciformis. Many were the means tried to secure 

 these " skittish " moths by the old set of Lancashire entomolo- 

 logists, such as tacking leno-netting round the trees ; but little 

 was the result. Of course we have all read the poem upon the 

 wicked (!) collectors who were supposed to have cut down the 

 trees, and carted them all the way — a long way too — home, so as to 

 breed the moths. I saw some of those trees in the garden of one 

 of the vigorous collectors, but he assured me that the trees were cut 



