NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 163 
potatoria this spring, in this neighbourhood. I should like to 
know whether this is owing to the mild winter.—A. Saker; 
Stoat’s Nest, Coulsdon, Surrey. 
[There is little doubt that the mild winter has had much to do 
with the abundance of O. potatoria, which appears to be general. 
—Ep.] 
ERASTRIA VENUSTULA.—In the year 1860 I had a number of 
eggs of this species laid by a pill-boxed female taken in Epping 
Forest. These hatched in due course, and fed up freely on the 
flowers of Tormentilla reptans. Unfortunately I made no notes at 
the time, but as far as I can remember the only trouble I had 
with them was to get them fresh food. When nearly full-fed I 
gave some to the late Mr. E. Newman for description. My larve 
were kept in a well ground jam-pot, from which there was no 
possibility of escape; but day by day they “grew small by 
degrees and beautifully less,” until there was one only left. This 
“last of the Mohicans” constructed a small cocoon just beneath 
the surface of some dry sand I had placed in the jar, and emerged 
the following May a small but bright-coloured specimen. The 
cocoon and pupa-skin I mounted on card, and gave them to Mr. 
Newman. It did not strike me until too late that they were of 
cannibalistic proclivities; and I should imagine that in a state of 
nature they gave each other a wide berth, and for that reason 
would, I think, be very hard to find by searching for, as the food- 
plant, 7’. reptans, is so widely distributed where they occur.— 
C. 8. Biaas; 3, Stanley Terrace, West Ham Park, E., June 20. 
Foop-PLaANT oF ERASTRIA vENUSTULA.—There is, I think, 
very little doubt about Potentilla tormentilla being the natural 
food-plant of H. venustula. This moth was first bred in England 
in the year 1859-60 by my friend Mr. Henry Nicholls, who 
captured some specimens in the old Epping locality, which laid 
some eggs in the pill-boxes in which he carried them home. As 
nothing was then known regarding the life-history of the insect, 
and wishing to breed it, he was obliged to resort to the usual 
practice of collecting those prominent plants growing in the 
vicinity of the insect’s habitat. As P. tormentilla was one of the 
most conspicuously common plants there it was selected, with 
many others, for trial. From those offered to it, it was found 
that the young larve selected P. tormentilla, and of that the flowers 
