ENTOMOLOGICAL KAMBLES IN THE MIDLANDS. 85 



the dead stalks of last year's plants a few pupa of the very local and 

 beautiful Koyal Mantle moth, Anticlea sinuata. From the hawthorn 

 hedges are beaten several larva of the curious little moth, Gilix spinula. 

 A number of sallows are in bloom on the waste ground a little further on» 

 about which various bees and other insects are flying and buzzing in 

 lively style, and upon which, at night, most of the spring moths — includ. 

 ing nearly all the Tceniocampce (T. gracilis amongst the number) may be 

 taken. 



By beating the underwood in Cut-throat Coppice we start the some- 

 what rare moth, Phorodesma bajularia — the "Blotched Emerald" — so 

 called from the colour of the wings, which are green with a conspicuous 

 creamy and red blotch in each anal angle. On a lilac tree at the door of a 

 oottage close by we find a freshly-emerged specimen of the delicately- 

 coloured Lilac Beauty moth, Pericallia syringaria, and on the opening buds 

 of birch growing outside the wood a number of larva of the very hand- 

 some Tryphceiia fimbria are feeding, a good supply of which we duly 

 secure. This larva, in its earlier stages, feeds, chiefly at night, on low 

 growing plants — such as the primrose — but as soon as the tender shoots 

 of the birch and sallow begin to unfold it ascends these trees and feeds 

 upon the buds. It may frequently be found by day, although early 

 evening is much the best time to search for it. 



Sitting on a post, apparently asleep, in tint and outline very much 

 like a small patch of lichen, and, moreover, closely simulating the colour 

 of the wood, is a specimen of the charming little Long-horn beetle, 

 Pogonocherus hispidus. This specimen is most unlikely to be the only one 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, and the hint afforded by its presence is 

 not to be neglected ; hence, knowing the creature's predilections, we 

 beat over an inverted umbrella some dry sticks placed in a hedge close by 

 to stop a gap, with the result that three more hispidus and one P. dentatus, 

 a closely allied but smaller species, are secured. In a piece of oak bark 

 which we strip from a decaying tree are a colony of Octotemnus glabricidus, 

 two species of Bhizophagus, Homalium planum and H. florale ; whilst in a 

 fungus growing outside near the base are two beetles that, except in 

 habitat, widely differ from each other, their names being Cis boleti and 

 Mycetophagus quadripustulatus. 



By digging at the roots of a solitary oak, growing in the middle of a 

 field opposite the coppice, we obtain three pupa of Amphydasis betularia, 

 commonly known by the undignified appellation of "Pepper Moth," and 

 one A. prodromaria. From under moss-covered bark of poplar, two 

 cocoons of Acronycta megacephala are brought to light, together with some 

 half dozen specimens of Erirhinus vorax, one of the Bhynchophorous or 

 snout-bearing beetles. Whilst removing these, we observe on the trunk 

 of the tree, at its base, scores of the pretty yellow-legged weevil, Apion 

 fagi, and capture two examples of A. difforme, both males, as indicated by 

 the peculiar enlargement of the basal joint of the anterior tarsi. By 

 shaking over our sheet of paper some of the moss loosened in our search 

 after pupa we obtain specimens of Encephalus complicans, MegacronUs 



