NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 21 



[The accompaniment of P. cardui by P. gamma has frequently 

 been observed in this country in years when abnormal migrations of 

 the buttertly have taken place. I remember well that in the wet 

 summer of 1879 they flew together in swarms on the Downs at 

 Hunstanton, Norfolk.— H. E.-B.] 



Hibernating Stage of Thymelicus action. — In a foot-note to 

 my remarks on the hibernating stage of T. actceon (' Entomologist,' 

 vol. li, p. 247), I mentioned Mr. Frohawk as the authority who could 

 clear up the ambiguity. He has very kindly drawn my attention to 

 the life-history of the species published by him in ' The Field ' some 

 time in 1915. He says that the ovum hatches on the twenty-third 

 day from laying. Larva at once hibernates, and remains hibernating 

 for eight months without feeding at all. Ova usually hatch toward 

 the end of August.- — H. Eowland-Brown ; Harrow Weald, Decem- 

 ber 4th, 1918. 



The Larval Habits op Dioryctria abietella. — At the 

 beginning of July last I found a fir-cone in which a larva was 

 evidently feeding. The hole w&s sealed up about the middle of the 

 month and a fine D. abietella $ emerged on August 4th. Meyrick 

 says of this species : " . . . in shoots of Pinus sylvestris, not 

 causing resinous exudation ; 4, 5." Leech, quoting Hofmann, says ; 

 " The larva lives in fir-cones in October ; it leaves them in November, 

 and spins a cocoon on the surface of the ground, in which it passes 

 the winter, pupating in spring." My single observation does not, of 

 course, invalidate Meyrick's description, as the discrepancy is 

 sufficiently slight to be the result of individual habit and develop- 

 mental delay. Hofmann's view is evidently incorrect. — H. Douglas 

 Smart, Major, R.A.M.C. ; Prisoners of War Hospital, Brocton, Staffs, 

 December 4th, 1918. 



Note on Lasiocampa quercus. — With reference to your corre- 

 spondent Mr. Woolacott's interesting experience with this insect 

 (' Entomologist,' vol. li, p. 259) may I offer a solution ? In the ordinary 

 course of Nature the actual commencement of the development of a 

 moth's wings is practically simultaneous with its emergence. There- 

 fore, this insect having been unnaturally liberated, goes to show that 

 the supreme moment had not arrived, and would not have arrived for 

 two days (the time it remained unchanged), when under natural 

 conditions the wings would have commenced to develop on emer- 

 gence, the insect having then reached the critical moment when both 

 actions (emergence and development) would have taken place 

 together. In regai-d to the second occurrence, copulation could 

 have easily taken place during the two days, as a moth's body would 

 be in a perfectly developed state practically a week before natural 

 emergence. — H. A. Morrell ; Heathdene, Wordsworth Road, Wal- 

 lington, Surrey. 



Sphinx convolvuli and Cidaria miata in Shetland. — It may 

 be of interest to record the occurrence in Shetland of fwo rare moths, 

 viz. Sphinx convolvuli and Cidaria miata. The former has to my 

 knowledge been seen and specimens obtained several times. The 



