CASTLE HILL, 23 



little /Enea, and all three of the Foresters (Statices, Glo- 

 lularice, and Geryoii). Further along the hills west- 

 ward several years ago I took many specimens of the 

 Five- spotted Burnet (Z. tnfolii} flying about with 

 Z.fdipendulce, but I have never seen it since, either 

 there or hi any other part of our district. All along 

 these slopes we find in October the handsome larva 

 of the Fox Moth (Bomlyj.- rubi) hi great abundance, 

 the perfect insect appearing in May. Only once 

 have I been fortunate enough to see it on the wing, 

 and then, of course, I had not my net. It only flies 

 for an hour or so towards the end of the afternoon, 

 and then only the males are about ; the females hide 

 themselves in the long grass, and the only way to 

 find them is to track the males patiently until they 

 drop down. I took three males in my hat, and they 

 are still my only specimens. Why should it be so 

 difficult to rear this insect '? The caterpillar hyber- 

 nates, and gets on very well during the winter, but 

 in captivity ninety-nine out of every hundred invari- 

 ably die in the spring, only a few entomologists have 

 succeeded in rearing them. Along with my per- 

 severing friend, Mr. Blackall, I have limited for the 

 larva? in April but we have not found above a dozen 

 altogether, and those we did find died, mostly from 

 previous attacks by parasitic diptera. We then 

 searched later on for cocoons among the long grass, 

 furze and brambles, and two crowned our efforts 

 from one of which Mr. B. was fortunate enough to 

 rear a female. Bombyx rubi is hi fact, a troublesome 

 insect to get hold of. I strongly suspect that the 

 caterpillar spins up at the end of its hybernation 

 without going abroad much to eat, otherwise we 



