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mother, who has been most successful in breeding many rare British species, has 

 reared many from the egg. We have not taken it at large since 1874, but she has 

 succeeded for thirteen years iu in-breeding them, that is from the same stock, and 

 she has obtained eggs again this year. I know of no case of in-breeding that will 

 compare with this. The numbers get fewer each year, but the specimens are fine 

 and well marked. For the other species of the genus Eupithecia I must refer you 

 to the list, and pass on to Lohophora sexalisata and hexapterata. The one is found 

 on willow, and the other on poplar in June. As their names signify, they have 

 six wings, a small false wing appearing between the upper and lower wings of the 

 male insect. 



I now come to the Cuspidatce or Pseudo-Bombyces, of which there are only 

 33 British species, and 24 occur in the county. Dicranura hicuspis and stauropus 

 fagi are the rarest of them, and they have each been only taken twice. Of the 

 first-named, I took the larva on alder at Dinmore, as reported in the Club 

 Transactions for 1866. It was injured, and died. A year or two afterwards I 

 took a beautiful imago sitting beside its cocoon on birch at the same place. My 

 mother took Fagi at Bircher Common, and Dr. Wood records having taken 

 another at Tarrington. There is a specimen in the box ; it will be observed that 

 the antennae are pectinated with the tip filiform. Beside it, is its remarkable larva 

 from which it takes its name, the Lobster. 



Of the Noctute, the largest group of the Macro-Lepidoptera, there are 318 

 species, and 184 occur in the county. Among these there are many rarities, too 

 many to mention all, but Acronycta Alni and Xi/lomiges Conspicillaris, both taken 

 by Ur. Wood, should not be passed by without mention. I once took the larva 

 of the former on oak near Berrington Wood, but it was stung by an ichneumon 

 and died. It is a peculiar larva, until the last change being so exactly like a 

 bird's dropping that it is difijcult, when at rest, to believe it is not so. When the 

 last slough takes place, the change is almost startling ; a grand black -and-gold 

 larva appears with remarkable clubbed hairs resembling the antennae of a 

 butterfly. There are two specimens of the imago in the box. It is also inter- 

 esting to record that I have taken the whole of the 11 species of the genus 

 Tceniocampa on the same night at sallow bloom. Leucoarapha, opima, populeli 

 and miniosa are uncommon, and I do not know of opima being taken so far south 

 elsewhere. I have also taken the whole of the genus Xanthia — six in number — at 

 ivy bloom in the autumn. Single specimens only have been taken of Dicycla Oo, 

 Hecatera Dysodea and Serena, and several other species. Heliothis armigera I 

 have taken twice, once at rest on a door, and on the other occasion flying over 

 lobelia. Plusia Bractea and Festucce have not occurred again since they were last 

 reported twenty years ago. The former was knocked down by my father with a 

 botanical trowel, and captured at the Brooches Quarry, and two pupje of the 

 latter were taken on the bank of the old Leominster Canal, spun up in light 

 cocoons attached to some rushes. 



This brings me to the end of the Macro-Lepidoptera, and I do not propose 

 to trouble you with any detailed account of the Micros, as it is only of late years 

 that we have begun to work them, but Dr. Wood has devoted his attention to 



