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productive tree, and but few species could be secured from Oak either by beating 

 or pupa-digging. 



The only insect I have obtained here from Beech is Liparis monacha — 

 a single larva — and in this instance it was feeding on a tree near a corn-stone 

 lime quarry. 



Neither Elm or Poplar yield many larvae where growing near the outcrop 

 of this stone, but on a deep soil their usual frequenters will be found. Elm 

 and especially \Tych Elm is scarce here, yet the local Xanthia gilvago, believed 

 to feed especially on Wych catkins, has been taken. 



Oak at all seasons yields the greatest number of larvze. What theories 

 have been accepted on this subject I am unable to say. It may be that some 

 chemical product is formed in leaves, growing on their natural soil, that ia 

 essential to the well being of the larva, and instinct leads the female moth to 

 select such trees when depositing her ova. 



It cannot be a mere chance that larva? which on the Oolite Limestones 

 feed almost exclusively on Beech, on the Old Bed Sandstone resort entirely to 

 the Oak. 



The number of named Lepidoptera found at 'Whitfield is, from the short 

 and imperfect way they have been worked, by no mears insignificant. They 

 number nearly three hundred species, and several, as far as I am able to discover, 

 are entirely new to the county. 



The Diurni which from their showy appearance and time of flight are 

 most often noticed, number about 30 species. 



First to be mentioned is Leucophasia sinapis which seems not so scarce 

 as at Leominster ; one I took in August was flying over a cornfield in company 

 with the commoner Picris rapce, an unusual locality for this wood-frequenting 

 species. Argyim.it paphia, is abundant sailing up and down every sunny path in 

 the woods, stopping ever and anon to sip the nectar from the blackberry 

 blossoms, tenanted by numberless examples of the commoner species of Eip- 

 parchia. 



The elegant Theda qucrcus sports in plenty around every oak and is the 

 only Hair-streik at present taken. I believe Theda W. Album occurs as I 

 once knocked an insect resembling it into a hedge, but being ucable to find 

 it cannot speak positively. 



Of the Hawk-moths no rarity has been taken here. 



Deilephtta galii, not hitherto known to the county, appeared at Leominster 

 last summer for the first time. 



The destructive internal feeders, fortunately seem scarce, and will, I trust, 

 continue so. Sesia apiformis and Zazera cesculi are at present the only repre- 

 sentatives. 



The usually common Goat-moth Cossus ligniperda which, in some districts 

 does such extensive damage in the larva state, by boring through the solid wood 

 of our forest trees, has failed to make its presence known, either by the holes it 



