105 



says that it has been taken at Dinedor, and also seen at Aconbury, Backbury, 

 and near Ross. It frequents the tops of oak trees, and is very diflScult to 

 capture. The larva feeds on the broad-leaf willow Salix caprea. I am also 

 indebted to Mr. Pilley for the record of Arge Galathea seen near Rotherwas 

 NemeohiiLS Lucina taken at Haughwood, and Lycosna j£gon taken at Litley and 

 elsewhere. As a rule butterflies have not been common of late years, but Vanessa 

 C-album is generally common throughout the county, although for some years it 

 is hardly seen, whilst perhaps in the following year it is unusually abundant. 

 There are three specimens of this insect in the box : an upper and an underside of 

 the autumn brood, and an underside of the spring brood. INIy mother was the 

 first to draw attention to the fact that this species is double brooded, and in 

 favourable seasons she has no doubt that there is a midsummer brood as well. 

 The spring variety, it will be observed, is much paler than that of the autumn 

 type, and was named Hutchinsonii by the late Mr. Doubleday. The larva and 

 egg cases are also shown. The pupa, which is called by hop-pickers the silver 

 grub, has a silver mark on each side resembling the white C mark on the under- 

 side of the hind wings of the imago. 



Of the " Nocturni," which include the Sphinges and Bombyces, out of 112, 

 66 occur in the county, the most noteworthy of which, Achcrontia atropos, the 

 Death's Head, measuring over five inches from tip to tip of the wings, is usually 

 taken in the larva or pupa state in the autumn among potatoes. It is generally 

 considered tender and difficult to rear. As a rule, the imago will not emerge till 

 the following year, and, sometimes, not for two or three years. The best plan is 

 to place the pupa in light mould in a flower-pot on a gentle hotbed, and force it 

 out the same year ; then no difficulty will be found. A pupa dug up in the 

 garden at Grautsfield, although the case was cut through across the antenna with 

 the fork, and a moisture exuded from the wound, was treated in this way success- 

 fully, notwithstanding the wound. The injured antenna was shorter than the 

 other. This is the only British Lepidoptera that has the power of making a 

 sound. I have heard the imago and pupa squeak as loud as a mouse, and it is 

 stated that the larva does the same. 



Sphinx Convolvidi, which is a trifle smaller than atropos, measuring from 4^ 

 to 4'i inches from tip to tip, is moderately common in the county. In 1868 I took 

 twenty-seven over petunia. In August, 1870, I took a specimen of the rare 

 Deilcphila Galii also over petunia, and another was taken at Leominster in the 

 same year. On September 12th, 1885, the still rarer Choerocampa celerio was 

 captured by a man in Widemarsh Street, Hereford, attracted by light, and taken 

 by him to Mr. Pilley, in whose collection it now is, but I am sorry to say it is 

 minus legs and antennae. The man thought it was some kind of hornet and stuck 

 it through the thorax with his penknife, and to prevent it doing any further 

 mischief drowned it in paraffin. Mr. Pilley has since soaked it in benzine, and, 

 considering all things, it is a very fair specimen. Dr. Wood reports the capture 

 of another by the Kev. Mr. Napleton on a stable door at Tarrington about thirty 

 years ago. I exhibit a specimen of Ckcerocampa Elpenor of the same genus, with 

 a preserved larva which gives the name of Elephant to the species, the anterior 



