NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 17 



Cijmatophora ocularis I think must be consiciered the best thing 

 taken, as though it occurs pretty regularly round Cambridge (some 

 years in numbers), it is always very local and uncertain in 

 appearance. 



I ought to mention too the almost total absence of Orrhodia 

 vaccina. Since coming here in 1907 I have only seen three speci- 

 mens, the last three years ago. Its congener, 0. ligula, is abundant 

 and very variable. Has any other southern collector found it 

 scarce ? 



Dayfliers were pitiably scarce all tlu-ougli the summer, and 

 only one AcoiUia luctaosa was noticed. Amongst the butterflies, 

 Augiades sylvaims (as often happens in wet yearsj was quite common, 

 but the " Common Blues " and " Small Copper " were entirely absent ! 

 LarvcB, however, were abundant everywhere, and I had a full-fed 

 Anticlea sinuata brought to me. 



I saw several Geriira furcula larvai crawling down the trunks 

 of willow-trees I had sugared. They were full-grown, and yveve 

 evidently coming down to pupate, and as . they were very 

 conspicuous in this position w-ere wise enough to choose the 

 night-time for their purpose. — Hugh P. Jones; Westwood, Great 

 Shalford, Cambridge. 



Unusual Food-plant of Acherontia atropos. — In a letter from 

 Mr. Charles Morris of Le Cannet, under date November 16th, he 

 writes : " Last week v/e found a fine larva of A. atropos on an olive- 

 tree nearly full fed. It had completely devoured a small branch. 

 We were attracted by the large amount of frass on the road. There 

 was only one, and it had taken on the glaucous green tint of the 

 leaves, and the stripes on the back were indigo and Prussian blue — ■ 

 altogether remarkable coloration and a handsome beast ; coloration 

 no doubt due to its diet, as I find all nude larvae take on very much 

 the colour in pigmentation of the shade of leaf or flower they feed 

 on. It may, if successful, produce a very dark imago, which, of 

 course, may produce also some salad oil, and go greasy ! I had a 

 male that evidently had been at a hive, and exuded honey from its 

 head for years after it was killed and dried." The text-books 

 give tea-tree, bitter-sweet, and snowberry as additional foods 

 to solanum. But as might be expected, a larva with the powerful 

 jaws of atropos can stomach even the tough leaves of evergreen 

 trees, and Milliere (Catalogue des Lepids. des Alpes-Maritimes, 

 part i., p. 116 ; Cannes, 1872) includes with the food-plants on tlie 

 Riviera Lycium barbarioii, L. euroyoium, Datura stramonium, 

 privet, and Jasminum fructicans. He records also having beaten 

 a larva from Quercus robur. M. P. Rondou (Catalogue, etc., 

 des Pyrenees, p. 50) has taken it on Fraxinus elatior. To which 

 may be added, on the authority of Eouast (Catalogue des Chenilles 

 Europeenes, Soc. Linn., Lyon, tome xxix, p. 267) Cannabis sativa, 

 and garden bean. But I think Mr. Morris is the first to note 

 atropos on olive. — H. Rowland-Brown ; Harrow Weald, December 

 3rd, 1916. 



ENTOM. — January, 1917. b 



