NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 235 



Laphygma exigua. — Whilst sitting at supper last evening a 

 moth flew in at the open window to the gaslight, which I captured, 

 and to my great surprise it proved to be a particularly fine and fresh 

 example of Laphygma exigua. One would hardly have expected 

 this rarity in one's upper room, an uninvited but very welcome 

 guest. — W. H. Tugwell; Greenwich, September 22, 1884. 



Larva of Geometra smaragdaria. — While collecting micro- 

 larvae on the Essex salt-marshes last week, I took one larva 

 of the above rarity, on a plant on which I should never have 

 thought of looking for the species ; and although I had never 

 seen the larva of G. smaragdaria before, and was not even 

 thinking of it at the time, I knew in a moment what it was, from 

 its being covered all over with small pieces of leaves and scaly 

 portions of its food-plant; it reminded me very forcibly of the 

 larva of Phorodcsma bajularia. I certainly should not have 

 seen it, had it not stretched itself out and waved its head to and 

 fro with a tremulous motion ; for its mimicry of dead portions of 

 its food-plant is so perfect that it took me some little time 

 to find it after I got home, although there were only a few small 

 pieces of the plant in the box. It is now three years since I first 

 went after this larva, and many long and fruitless journeys I have 

 had since that time, extending over miles of ground in every 

 direction on the salterns. Year after year I was searching the 

 wrong plants; for although I worked up the subject as well as 

 possible, by all the books that contained any information at all 

 about the species, the knowledge I gained was quite useless 

 as regards its food, so that my journeys always ended in 

 disappointment. They were not, however, altogether un- 

 profitable, for I have added a great number of very local species 

 to my collection, from larvae taken in the district, which I 

 certainly should never have found had it not been Geometra 

 smaragdaria which first induced me to collect over such a very 

 uninviting and desolate-looking locality. Mr. Machin, who dis- 

 covered the larva in Essex some few years ago, has seen my larva, 

 and pronounced it to be that of G. smaragdaria, as I thought. Now 

 I know its food I am in hope of filling up my series, although I 

 am inclined to think that will be no easy matter, for I had quite 

 two hours' collecting after I had] taken this larva, but failed 

 to take another. The exact locality and the food-plant I must 

 for obvious reasons at present decline to state, but will leave that 



