A FORTNIGHT IN MID-NORTHUMBERLAND. 75 



Crambtis culmellm, and Charceas graminis. The last-named spe- 

 cies was common everywhere in the pastures leading up to the 

 moor, resting among and creeping about the grass. 



At Rothley Crags, on the 19th, L. casiata was plentiful 

 enough. C. cidmellas, C. tristeilus, Aphelia osseana, and the pretty 

 Ainplma gerningana were common moths. I came upon a female 

 G. associata = dotata at rest upon the heather. This was the only 

 locality were I found A. gerniiigaiia, and it was certainly plenti- 

 ful. Flying lazily, and in numbers whenever the sun broke out, 

 was a curious-looking coal-black dipteron. This has been iden- 

 tified as Bibio marci ; and the sight of it, with its easy aerial 

 motions, and trailing its long russet and black legs behind it, was 

 something very odd. In size this insect is a little larger than 

 our common housefly, but with very much longer legs. The 

 wings are also longer. At dusk I netted a fresh C. prunata = 

 ribesiaria in a garden. 



At Bellingham I found the moors in the neighbourhood 

 apparently destitute of insect life at this time of the year. On 

 the 21st, on a piece of rough grassy ground near the railway- 

 station, and covered with knapweed, scabious, galium, St. John's 

 wort, harebells, yarrow, and thistles, all in full bloom, I netted 

 Pieris rapce, P. napi, a chipped Lyccena icariis = alexis, several 

 Eubolia limitata --^ mensuraria, as well as a lot of Scopula lutealis. 

 The last-mentioned occurred by every roadside in the district. 

 One of the limitata, a male, is a very dark insect, and almost 

 unicolorous. Hareshaw Linn is a fine waterfall at the top of a 

 lovely wooded glen about a mile or so from the town. Here 

 my captures were only one P. napi, two Hypsiyetes sordidata = 

 elutata (both dark insects, and one of them almost unicolorous), 

 and L. didymata. But I could not help thinking what a fine 

 locality this must be earlier in the summer. Netting at dusk 

 only showed a solitary C. pyraliata ; and in my comfortable hotel, 

 redolent with the scent of sweet peas, I found a Caradrina qiiad- 

 ripunctata ^ ciibicularis at rest on one of the windows. I only 

 saw a single caterpillar in all the fortnight — a full-fed Notudonta 

 ziczac, on sallow. 



At Wannie's Crags, on the 21th, L. casiata was most abun- 

 dant. The moth, throughout the district, is more clearly marked 

 with waved and almost black striae — on an almost white ground 

 — than examples I have taken in North Wales. I have met with 

 the same distinctly-marked form on the Cumberland hills. In 

 two of the Wannie's specimens the median band across the fore 

 wings is sooty black, and unicolorous except for the smallest 

 possible indication of the grey blotch close to the costal margin. 

 The males of L. didymata on these crags have an ochreous tinge, 

 and the females, throughout the whole district, appear to be very 

 pale in coloration, and similar in this respect to those on 

 Glougha Pike, North Lancashire. I met swarms of the black 



