NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 143 



Easter Monday I went to the forest in the hope of again 

 taking Periltia obscuripunctella and Chrysocoris festaliella. 

 but the wind being northerly nothing would move, except 

 two or three wasted Anticlea derivata. After working for 

 some time in vain 1 turned uiy attention to the thistle-stems, 

 and secured a good supply of the pupae of Ephippiphora 

 pjiugiana; and on my way back to Chingford Station 1 

 examined the plants of stitchwort [Slellaria holostea), 

 common in the hedges. These produced Coleophora solita- 

 riella in plenty, nearly full-fed. On a subsequent visit to the 

 forest I met with the following: — Elachista obscurella, 

 Perittia ohscuripunctella, Grapholita obtusana, Siigmonota 

 puvcticostmia, Lobesui reliquana^ and Dicrorampa plum- 

 ban a ; Pijrodes rhediana were common. The grandest 

 capture was a splendid specimen of Ephippiphora obscurana, 

 beaten from hawthorn. 1 have bred Gelechia acuminalella 

 in profusion from larvae, found in October last, mining the 

 leaves of thistles, on Hackney marshes. Two larvas found 

 on the same plants, and which hybernated, have now 

 produced Noctua rubi. — Wm. Machin; 22, Argyle Road, 

 Carlton Square, E., May 23, 1878. 



Entomology at the Royal Academy. — It is, we con- 

 ceive, a thing to rejoice over, when a master of acknowledged 

 standing in the highest walks of art — a learned, thoughtful, 

 austere, and thoroughly academical painter — condescends to 

 execute a designedly and deliberately comic picture. This 

 is what Mr. E. Armitage, R.A., has done in his genial and 

 playfully humorous work — (111) "An Entomological Sale." 

 The more classical painters who occasionally unbend, the 

 merrier. One of the most irresistibly funny collections of 

 caricatures extant is that engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar, 

 from the pen-and-ink drawings of Lionardo da Vinci. John 

 Leech, Richard Doyle, Hablot Browne, never drew such funny 

 faces as those traced by the immortal painter of the "Cena;" 

 and here we have the grave and dignified Mr. Armitage 

 giving us the humours of an auction of a choice collection of 

 insects, and constructing a genuine comedy which H. J. 

 Byrons might prize and J. L. Tooles adore. Never mind if 

 the old gentlemen who are poring over the "lots" are 

 "beetle-stickers" and "butterfly-butchers." They are aware 

 of what they are about; they know theii Kirby and Spence 

 by heart; they can afford to meet with a cheerful smile the 

 sneers which are occasionally levelled at the pursuit of the 

 science of Entomology ; and they hold with the sage that 



