ee) 
220 Beka 
pS 
Woe = 
ENTOMOLO( 1 
and gathered a good bunch of Alisma stems. Upon looking at ther 
on May 24th I noticed a very small Coleophora on one of the dead 
female of the above. If all is well I hope to find the larva later on. 
I may add that Juncus conglomeratus grows in abundance round the 
stems, and upon examination was very pleased to find I had gota 
ye 
edge of the pond. This is a welcome addition to our Essex list. I 
have only heard of its occurrence in Herefordshire and Sussex.— — 
A. THURNALL; Wanstead. 
PLATYPTILIA RHODODACTYLUS, E.—The occurrence of this very 
beautiful species so far north as Huntingdonshire seems worth 
recording. A female caught on the edge of a wood late in July, 1919, 
gave the clue to its presence, and a search among the briar bushes 
early in June, 1920, yielded a dozen larve and pup. Although 
hedgerows, full of wild roses and seldom trimmed, abound in the 
neighbourhood, the insect was only found in a very restricted locality 
(fifty yards of hedgerow), which perhaps accounts for its passing 
unnoticed before, in spite of many years’ collecting in the neighbour- 
hood. A casual reference to entomological literature seems to show 
that the species has very seldom been recorded in late years, though 
it is understood that it still occurs in its old haunts round London. 
Tutt, ‘British Lepidoptera,’ vol. v, pp. 256-267, states that the insect 
has only been noted in Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey. It may 
also be of interest to quote a statement from the same source that 
the larvee have proved destructive to garden roses on the Continent 
and also in the United States, to which it is supposed the larvee had 
been imported in the course of trade in rose bushes. Presumably the 
pruning to which roses are usually subjected prevents the species 
from assuming the character of a serious rose pest in England.— 
J.C. and F. H. Fryer; Chatteris. 
LEPIDOPTERA IN THE Auton District.—I have had very little time 
this term for Entomology, but what I had I have devoted to the 
heather country. It was lucky, as there is very little heather left in 
Surrey and Hants after these disastrous fires. I had to cycle in the ~ 
evenings about 6 miles from Alton to a very productive stretch of 
heath, but I found there nearly everything that occurs on such 
ground. P. hippocastanaria was taken on April 13th, and the second 
brood was out on July 2nd—very early. Duacrisia sanio was flying 
freely on June 13th, including female, and I have a few larve there- 
from just spinning up now (July 29th). Macrothylacia rubi was very 
abundant. I caught two females on the wing in the afternoon, besides. 
males. Other things were Saturnia pavonia, Aspilates strigillaria, 
Acidalia straminata (one tending towards var. circellata), Lithosia 
complana, etc. A curious find was: a larva of Calocampa exoleta on 
heather, very conspicuous. I could not observe that it ate heather. 
It unfortunately died later, probably from eating lettuce: it was so 
hard to get any wild herbage that was not filthy with vermin and 
honeydew. Another curious occurrence was that in a very dry spot, 
among some birch trees, with no other vegetation but heather and dry 
wiry grass, I came upona shoal of newly emerged Acidalia emarginata. 
T had only a few boxes left, but took seven or eight of the best in as 
many minutes. What could it have fed on? Inaswamp byalarge 
