274 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



cream-coloured spots with reddish centre, two on each elytron ; one a 

 little before centre, near suture ; the other near base, on the lateral 

 margin. The body beneath, and the legs, somewhat longly pilose, 

 with a transverse oval cream-coloured spot, and a smaller spot near its 

 base, at the junction of the pro- and mesosternum ; and two some- 

 what similar spots at the posterior margin of the mesosternum. The 

 legs have a patch of light-coloured hairs on the upper and anterior 

 edge of the femora, near base. Tlie tibise are fringed with lightish 

 hair on their posterior margins. Long, from head to apex of elytra 

 12 lines. Max. lat. 5 lines. 



Hab. British East Africa. 



PYRAMEIS CARDUI, PL U SI A GAMMA, AND NEMOPHILA 



NOCTUELLA. 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. 



The number of dull, rainy, or otherwise bad days during the 

 month of September, 1903, rendered anything like a continuous 

 record of the doings of so sun-loving a creature as Pyrameis cardui 

 being kept ; but such fragmentary notes as I was able to make 

 regarding its appearance at Eastbourne during my stay there 

 may be of some interest when taken in conjunction with other 

 published observations. 



Sept. 10th will long be remembered for its storm ; the fresh 

 westerly breeze of the morning southerned a few points during 

 the later part of the day, and as night approached increased to a 

 violent hurricane ; the spray-laden wind swept along the coast, 

 utterly destroying the more tender foliage, and even some miles 

 inland the exposed sides of trees and hedges were browned and 

 shrivelled as though they had been scorched ; and its effect on 

 insect life on our south and east coasts must have been equally 

 disastrous. This was followed by fairly fine weather with calms 

 and slight airs until the 17th, when a south-east breeze set in, 

 and by the 19th had backed to east- south-east, and was blowing 

 freshly, and so continued until the 21st. 



Up to the 20th I had seen neither cardui nor gamma, but on 

 that day I noticed one of the former and several of the latter 

 feeding at the flowers planted in the gardens along the parades. 

 On the 21st one cardui and increased numbers of gamma were 

 seen in the same situation, and during a walk on the higher 

 inland downs in the late afternoon the latter-named species was 

 flying in great numbers, and feeding freely at bramble-blossoms, 

 but no concerted flight in any particular direction was observable. 

 The 22nd was overcast, with drizzley rain ; on the 23rd a sea-fog 

 obscured both land and sky, and on the 24th it still hung over 

 the land, but less densely. Despite these adverse conditions, 



