LEPIDOPTERA IN NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE IN 1919. 55 



in an assembling box in the garden and sat up that night till 

 ■2 a.m. (summer time), but nothing came. I therefore left her 

 and went in. Next morning, to my surprise, I found three males 

 sitting on the box, so I sat up again, and found the males began 

 to assemble at about 2.15, and they kept on coming to the number 

 of twenty-nine till 3.30, when the flight appeared to cease. 



On the 29th I was joined by Mr. Peed and Mr. P. C. Pieid. 

 One day we were lucky enough to get a freshly emerged female, 

 Ceriira bicuspis, and we went out together that evening to try to 

 assemble males, with the special object of getting a pairing. 

 Some males came, but though free access to the female was 

 given they absolutely refused to pair ; they buzzed all around, 

 alighted and crawled round the female, and then one after 

 another flew off. This continued for two or three nights and 

 we began to get hopeless. The evening of June 9th was cold 

 and I did not go out, but left the now long-emerged female in a 

 pairing-trap in the garden, with a female each of Notodonta 

 trepida, N. dromedarius and Pachys betularia. To my great 

 surprise next morning when I inspected the trap I found all four 

 females paired. All the females in due course deposited ova, 

 but unfortunately the bicuspis ova proved unfertile. 



During the day searching tree trunks was not very produc- 

 tive. Acronycta leporina was very scarce, only one or two being 

 seen, and E. pendnlaria ab. subroseata equally so. (By the by, 

 Mr. Prout now tells me that ab. decoraria of E. Newman is a 

 different form, and that the name subroseata may be retained 

 for the North Staffordshire form.) Tephrosia extensaria, how- 

 ever, was not uncommon. A good many E. plumbeolata were 

 taken by stirring them up from patches of Melampyrum, and on 

 sunny days some Sesia culiciformis and S. sphegiformis were 

 taken flying and a few Hemaris bombyliformis were seen, but not 

 caught. Some Diacrisia sanio {russula), both male and female, 

 were taken at an unusually early date, and Brenthis selene was 

 abundant all through the month. 



During the month we tried sugar, but with not very much 

 success, insects visiting it only in small numbers, but amongst 

 those taken were three Acronycta alni. Larvae of this species 

 had been unusually numerous in the previous August, but a 

 large proportion were victims of parasites. My chief business 

 ■was with Macro-lepidoptera, but when I saw insects of other 

 groups that I thought might be of use to the Oxford University 

 Museum I took them. 



Among these were the very handsome dragonfly, Libellula 

 qiiadrimacidata, L., whose habits are similar to those of 

 L. depressa, which it very much resembles, save that it is 

 infinitely shyer, and both Mr. Peed and myself found it impos- 

 sible to catch by stalking, and only one was netted by chance as 

 it passed close by in a high wind. Another was a "daddy," 



