261 



When ensconced in their cocoons, all danger would seem at an end, hut, 

 Unfortunately, Woodpeckers consider larva? most tempting morsels, and a few 

 blows of their powerful bills soon make an end of both cocoon and contents. 



I may mention that along the banks of the Wye below Hereford Dicranura 

 bifida appears to be rather common, but their cocoons when full require a very 

 sharp and well-tutored eye to distinguish them from a mere roughening of the 

 bark of the poplar they are formed on. 



It is with great pleasure I can place Ftauropus fagi on my list. Three 

 of their larvae, the most singular of all, the cuspidales, from their remote 

 resemblance to lobsters, weie captured in 1869. 



Karities often turn up in most unlikely places, and one of these was found 

 crawling about in the bottom of a boat. 



It was then fu'l fed, and had no doubt fallen from an overhanging oak 

 bough, and but for the boat would have met with a watery grave. 



The other two larvae were beaten from young oak trees growing thickly 

 together. 



Stauropus fagi is supposed to spin up in a leaf while it is attached to the 

 tree, and descend in it when the leaves fall in the autumn. In this ose all the 

 larva? descended in 1he usu4 way when full fed, and wandered about on the 

 earth in my breeding cage for a c jnsiderable time. They then crawled under 

 leaves, and making a sort of tent, spun a loose cocoon, using any mateiials at 

 hand for the under part, and the leaves for the upper. 



Pttasia castinia, a scarce species, is not uncommon here, and may be 

 found at rest on apple trees in our orchards about the first wetk in November. 

 The males may also be obtained freely at light. Capirua is a most difficult 

 species to rear, and I find all my correspondents who have tried reiring it fail 

 as miserably as I do. Of some thirty larvae bred la-t fpiing I did not get a 

 single imago, jet all fed up well and entered the earth apparently in nrst-ra'e 

 condition. Iso reason is at present known for this enormous fatality whilst 

 in the pupa st-ite, at.d it nukes no difference whether the latv;e have been bred 

 in captivity or have remained in their wild and unpampered condition. I assert 

 this fiom the fact of the larvae being found far more commonly than the 

 imago. 



Of the genus Notodonta three species at present occur, the rarest of these, 

 Notodmta trtpida, bred from pupae reund at oak loots, seems somewhat darker 

 in colour than species from other parts cf England, a circumstance observed in 

 several insects in ttis county. 



Passing on to the Noctuae, my list becomes very limited, but the absence 

 of extensive marshes, heaths, and waste lands prevent this order being even 

 fairly up to the avewge in point of numbers. 



The pietty Tliyatira are both common, and a lovely sight it is to see 

 these insects sipping sugar on a dark June nit;ht when the flash of a " bull's 

 eye" enables every mark to be seen distinctly on their quivering wings, and 



