NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 17 



particular historic time. Again, it is quite out of the question to 

 imagine that its female was ever, even under the most favourable 

 circumstances, blown across the silver streak ; for not only is its 

 ponderous body incapable of such a feat, but it usually deposits 

 its eggs on the exterior of its cocoon, so that it would not 

 therefore present a chance of being caught by the wind. Had 

 the larva been a smooth one, or even had the eggs been a 

 suitable food for any bird, animal, reptile, or fish, a reason 

 might possibly have been traced for distribution in this manner; 

 but the larva is hairy, and perhaps no insect is so little molested 

 as Orgyia antiqua in any of its stages. How then has this insect 

 become so widely distributed, whose eggs are deposited on the 

 cocoon of their mother's pupa, and whose larvae crawl to the 

 nearest food to begin the battle of life. The argument may be 

 put forward that it took place before the present arrangement of 

 the Continent and islands, — in fact when these islands were part 

 and parcel of the rest of Europe ; but if this were so, how did it 

 survive the great climatic changes which attended and followed 

 that period. It could not have done so, and the question 

 remains : How are we to account for the great distribution 

 of those Lepidoptera whose females are apterous, and whose 

 larvae are not molested by other creatures ? — E. Lovett ; Croydon. 



Odonestis potatoria, var. — The variety in the male of this 

 species of the pale yellow colour of the female, as recorded by 

 Mr. Bowyer, in the December number of the 'Entomologist' 

 (Entom. xiii. 310), is of rather frequent occurrence in Wicken 

 Fen. The great majority, too, of the females I bred from larvsB 

 brought from Wicken last June were of a much paler and duller 

 yellow than in the ordinary type of the species. — Geo. T. Porritt ; 

 Highroyd House, Huddersfield, December 4, 1880. 



Odonestis potatoria, var. — As all records of varieties are 

 worth noting, I wish to mention that I bred this summer, from a 

 very small batch of larvae, a good variety of Odonestis iwtatoria, 

 a female, having a near approach to the colouring of the male, 

 the wings being of a very dark shade, and the general markings 

 resembling the usual decided character of the male insect. — Ed. 

 Lovett ; Holly Mount, Croydon, December, 1880. 



Rare Lepidoptera at Light. — While returning from an 

 unprofitable sugaring excursion on the sandhills here, last 



D 



