190 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ground-colour is this beautiful bright emerald green. — G. H. Simpson- 

 Hayward; Icomb Place, Stow-on-the-WoId, June 28th, 1919. 



Sesia asiliformis feeding in the Wood of Birch in Com- 

 pany WITH S. culiciformis. — On June 15th of this year in Eepton 

 Shrubs I noticed a small birch-stump, from which several empty 

 Sesiid pupa were protruding. I naturally supposed that these were 

 <S'. culiciformis, and no doubt they were so, especially since I boxed 

 on the stump a worn specimen of this moth. But on July 6th, 

 happening to glance at this same stump in passing, I noticed a 

 Sesiid pupa partly protruding and obviously just about to emerge. 

 I carefully extracted the pupa, and as it lay in the palm of my hand 

 the moth emerged with the startling instantaneous movement of its 

 kind and proved to be a $ S. asiliformis. A brief search revealed 

 another pupa, from which also a similar moth emerged within a few 

 minutes. This was at two o'clock in the afternoon, but the day was 

 overcast, and no doubt the insects would have emerged in the morning 

 sunshine had there been any. What seems to me just as remarkable 

 as the fact of an oak-bark feeder being -found in birch is the fact that 

 these larvie had not apparently fed in the bark, but in the solid wood. 

 The stump had been clumsily felled and a jagged fragment of wood 

 had been left standing at one side. This was riddled with the burrows 

 of Sesiid larviB, and it was from cocoons placed in these burrows that 

 the pupae were extracted. It is, I suppose, possible that the larvae 

 had fed in the bark and had crawled into old culicifonnis burrows 

 to pupate. About thirty yards away was an oak stump tenanted by 

 asiliformis larva3 — the species is abundant in the wood — but I think 

 it must be assumed that the larvtc bad fed in the stump in which 

 the pupcG were found. I should be glad to know if any case is on 

 record of asiliformis feeding in birch. The pabulum certainly seems 

 to agree with them, for the former of the two specimens is the largest 

 I have ever seen of the species. — H. C. Hayward ; Eepton, Derby, 

 July 6th, 1919. 



Notes on Lepidoptera from Wales and Hereford. — On 

 Whit-Monday this year I caught at Ystrad-Feltd, Hirwain, Brecon- 

 shire, a freshly emerged specimen of Ino staticcs, and in the same 

 place Melitcsn aurinia was quite common. It was also very al)undant 

 this year at Heath Halt, three miles from Cardiff, where I think it 

 has not been seen for a good many years, though recorded by Newman 

 for the district. In August last year I found a specimen of the larva 

 of Acronycta alni on sloe at Torpantau, near Merthyr, which I think 

 is a new record for Brecon. In your book on " British Butterflies " 

 it is said that Thecla lo-albiim occurs but rarely in Hereford ; but in 

 a large wooded area seven or eight miles to the north-west of Here- 

 ford this butterfly is very common — in fact, so much so that when 

 we were camping out thei'e the butterfly would frequently settle on 

 our tents. — T. W. Richards ; Cathedral School, Hereford, July 2nd, 

 1919. 



Colour Variation of Caccecia crat^gana, Hb., in the New 

 Forest. — When beating the oaks during the last week of June this 

 year I was pleased to find many specimens of C. craheyaita among 



