26 THE ENT0M0I-0GI8T. 



basal, of yellowish scales. Other Delamere captures worth noting are 

 a female Melanthia albicillata, two Acmnycta menyanthidis, and three 

 good examples of the sooty form of Macaria liturata var. niyrofidvata, 

 all in July. 



Electric lamps, owing to the unsatisfactory weather, were very 

 much of a failure. About a dozen Dicranura bifida were captured, but 

 all were males ; a couple of D. farcula — males again, and the same 

 sex was represented in all the black Amphidasys betularia I took. A 

 few Notodonta dictaa turned up — males again ; in fact, it is puzzling 

 why male insects, chiefly, come to the lights. A fine dark Ceriyo 

 matur a {cytherea), 3 \\\y 'iidrdi; a Leucoma salicis, Aug. 1st; Habrostohi 

 tiiplasia, Tiipfunna iunthina, Drepana bimiria (hnmula), Acidalia incanaria, 

 and Epione apiciaria — all in August ; Nonayria typhce and Kiipithecia 

 centaureata in September, are the best things I gather from my note- 

 book. One example each of E. apiciaria and E. centaureata were females, 

 and from these I obtained eggs. Those of E. centaureata were white, 

 and hatched Sept. 19th. The tiny larvae are now feeding on ragwort 

 flowers. The eggs of E. apiciaria are reddish, with whitish blotches, 

 and they will lie over the winter, I suppose, before hatching. Now 

 and then a big Smerinthus ocellatus, or S. popiili, invariably males, 

 would flop down at the foot of a lamp in June. But the temperature 

 dropped so about the middle of July that people took to overcoats, and 

 the lamps became hardly worth working. 



By far the most interesting work of the season was a closer 

 acquaintance with the district larvae. Ayrutis ashworihii began emerg- 

 ing from the chrysalis, July 1st. All the imagines were of the usual 

 stereotyped shade and pattern. The first A. lucernea appeared, July 

 13th, and in the series bred I got a fine dark specimen, the pale 

 wing-fringes showing up conspicuously. July 12th one of our party 

 found a lot of eggs of Macrothylacia rubi in Delamere Forest. They 

 were laid in clusters on the pendent wire-like blades of cotton-grass. 

 How a big, heavy, moth-like M. rubi managed to do this is rather 

 puzzling, but I suppose her weight pulled down the blades, which after- 

 wards rose again with their burdens. The eggs were entrusted to me. 

 Many of them were infertile, and the rest hatched July 18th. Since 

 that date the larvae have been forced, and they were all full-grown by 

 Sept. 14th. They are still eating a little, Oct. IGth. Of course, my 

 object is to get them to skip the hybernating period and pupate, but 

 whether I succeed or not seems doubtful. All along I have fed the 

 larvae on sallow, which they evidently like. 



The great object of the summer was to see — remembering that the 

 perfect insects are not rare at the electric lamps — how and in what 

 numbers the larvae of Dicranura bifida and D. furcula could be found 

 by close searching. D. vinula we saw in all its stages— the russet- 

 coloured egg, the young caterpillars like black strokes on the sallow 

 or poplar leaves, and the caterpillars full-grown or nearly so. From a 

 single poplar-bush — say a couple of yards wide and forming part of a 

 hedge — I picked, July 26th, twenty-one for some young friends. 

 Possibly they formed two separate broods, for about half were in the 

 final, while the remainder were in the preceding stage. Then there 

 was Smerinthus ocellatus ; in one afternoon in the middle of August we 



