Lepidoptera 163 







L., and Sphinx conwlvuli, L., may be mentioned; larvae and 

 pupae of the former are found plentifully in some seasons 

 in the large Fen potato fields. Deilephila galii, Schiff. was 

 fairly common on the chalk in 1888 ; Macroglossa bombyli- 

 f&rmis, Och. used to occur on Horningsea Fen and more 

 recently at Chippenham. 



Of the Sesiidae, Trochilium apiformis, Clerck, is common 

 in the poplars which surround and shelter the Fen farms ; 

 Sesia formicaeformis, Esp., although much more restricted in 

 its range than formerly, still occurs in some osier beds near 

 the Ouse. 



Bombyces. 



Fully two-thirds of the BOMBYCES might be claimed for 

 the county, but comparatively few are of great local interest. 

 Nudaria senex, Hb., a genuine bog insect, is abundant at 

 Wicken, and also occurs on the marshy banks of the upper 

 Cam ; Nemeophila russula, L. occurred in the time of Jenyns 

 in Horningsea Fen and has been taken at Chippenham ; 

 Spilosoma urticae, Esp., plentiful enough in the Fens up to 

 ten years ago is gradually becoming scarce. Callimorpha 

 dominula, L. occurs rarely at Chippenham; it was abundant 

 in Wicken and the neighbouring Fens up to the seventies of 

 last century, when it rapidly became scarce and disappeared 

 about the same time that Laelia coenosa, Hb. became extinct ; 

 the latter species occurred in such profusion in the mid fifties 

 that some other explanation than its being collected in large 

 numbers seems necessary to account for its somewhat sudden 

 disappearance twenty years later. Macrogaster castanae, Hb. 

 is rather more plentiful at Chippenham than at Wicken, but 

 it is not by any means scarce in the latter locality: recently 

 taken specimens are considerably smaller than those which 

 occurred at Whittlesea Mere, the size depending apparently 

 on the size of the reed in which they feed. Ocneria dispar, L., 

 now probably extinct as a British insect, occurred sparingly 

 in the Fens in the time of Jenyns, as also did Orgyia gono- 



112 



