NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 43 



growing along the side of this ride were several beech-trees which 

 had overhanging low branches. I never passed these beeches without 

 knocliing ouc of them two or three specimens. The bottom of the 

 Punch Bowl I found a very good locality for Tortrices, amongst 

 others the following occurring : Couchylis ambigiiella, Pammenegalli- 

 colana, GrapJiolitha albersana, Pammene germarana {puncticostana), 

 Ancylis upupana, A. myrtiUana, A. diminiitana, and Gonchyliscnicana. 

 P. germarana was abundant in several oak-woods, flying in the after- 

 noon sunshine. A notable sight was a female of Hemans JiLciformis 

 ovipositing on its foodplant Lonicera periclymenum. — W. G. Sheldon, 

 Youlgreave, South Croydon. 



Steganoptycha mercueiana feeding upon Bilberry. — "Whilst 

 at Rannoch early in July last, I found a very few small Tortrix larvae 

 feeding upon bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus ; from these ui August 

 emerged two specimens of S. viercuriana. Barrett says of the food- 

 plants of this species "June in a web on Dryas octopetala, but reared 

 by Dr. Wood from heather." — W. G. Sheldon. 



Tortrix rusticana in Tilgate Forest. — The late W. P. Weston 

 in ' Entomologist,' xiii, p. 85, states that : " Messrs. Howard Vaughan 

 and Sydney VVebb met with this species once commonly at Tilgate 

 Forest." I have hunted Tilgate Forest pretty frequently for the last 

 thirty years, but until this year I have not seen T. rusticana there, nor 

 , have I seen a more recent report of its occurrence. This year, however, 

 it was common at the end of May, flying in the afternoon sunshine 

 over rough herbage in some swampy fields on each side of the River 

 Mole where one crosses it by a foot-bridge on the way from Three 

 Bridges Station to the well-known tile-yard. I believe the only 

 information in Britain respecting the habits and foodplants of the 

 larva is that Mr. E. R. Banks bred it freely some years ago from 

 larvae found feeding upon Myrica gale, see E. M. M., xlv, pp. 151-154. 

 Certainly it could noc feed upon this plant at Tilgate, for it does not 

 occur there. Hornig says that it feeds upon spun-together leaves 

 of Lotus, Dorycnium and Gentiana amarella in September. Schmid 

 says it feeds upon bilberry and Onobrychis sativa and Goerze adds 

 Gonvallaria. Meyrick in 'Br. Lep.,' p. 538 also gives Myrica, 

 Vaccinium, etc. I think I am correct in saying that not one of 

 these plants occurs in the locality I found T. rustica^ia in last May 

 and therefore, that it has yet another food-plant. — W. G. Sheldon. 



Eccentricities of Triph.ena fimbria. — When collecting in the 

 New Forest in the late seventies T. fimbria used to be the first 

 insect to appear on the sugar patch. It was always in evidence 

 three-quarters of an hour before lighting-up time. We seldom saw 

 it fly, and used to wonder how it got there. Mr. James Douglas 

 says he has not observed it at sugar in the Hainault Forest, though 

 it is common there, and he has found it on grass stems. In 

 Lincolnshii'e it comes freely to sugar but not before dusk, when it 

 mixes with T. pronuba and the rest. Mr. A. Simmons says in 

 Nottinghamshire it occasionally comes to sugar. Here in Derby- 

 shire the perfect insect is very rarely seen. The late Mr. John Hill 

 took the larvcE in his neighbourhood for thirty-six years, but only 

 saw the perfect insect once. Mr. H. C. Hayward has collected 



