CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 141 



these large fat larvae are very easily seen as they crawl up long shoots 

 of Spanish chestnut, the opening leaves of which are a special attraction 

 to them. Larvfe of Noctua trianriiilnm, N. haja, and A^. brminea, usually 

 common, were very scarce, and I only beat one of Aplecta nebulnsa. 

 At the end of May and beginning of June Eicpithecia dodoneata was 

 taken rather commonly from trunks and branches of evergreen oak, 

 but it is a very local species here. At the beginning of June a few 

 larvae of Pseudoterpna pruinata were beaten from broom, also a few of 

 Chesias spartiata, a species generally very abundant. At the same 

 time a few larvae of Xylophasia scolopaeina were swept after dark from 

 grass growing in shady places in woods, but most of these were stung, 

 and only about a dozen moths bred. Larvae of Leitcania straminea, 

 usually full grown about the middle of June, were still small on the 

 23rd of the month, and apparently very scarce ; a few full grown were 

 taken towards the end of the month, but these were nearly all stung, 

 as is generally the case with late larvfe of this species. From the 

 middle to end of July Mamestra abjecta was met with on the coast in 

 goodly numbers, feasting on the blossoms of marram grass, and con- 

 tinued to visit this attractive bait, or sugar, until the end of August. 

 It is a species that gets worn very quickly, and should consequently be 

 taken as soon as possible after emergence, A few Se^ita maritima, with 

 three of the var. bimaculata and one of var. niijroUriata, were taken 

 among reeds in July. This is an insect that keeps out for a longtime, 

 for I have taken it from middle of June to middle of August. Agrotis 

 nif/ricans was beaten in numbers from lime blossom early in August, 

 and on 11th and 12th of the same month nearly two hundred pupje of 

 Xonaffnacfemimpuncta were taken from reed stems. On the latter date 

 I received a larva of Acherontia atropos from Margate, the only one 

 noticed this year, and this produced a fine moth on October 31st. 

 Heliothis armigera was seen on September 1st, and on the 2nd fifty 

 pupae of Nonagria tijphce were taken from the stems of bulrushes, but 

 it was rather late for them, for several empty pupa-cases were found, 

 and one moth emerged on the way home. On the 7th of the same 

 month Cucullia asteris was bred, which was remarkably late, as on 

 that day I obtained thirty-seven of the larvae, some of which were full 

 grown. A few larvfe of Pyrrhia (Chariclea) umbra were found on 

 Ononis in August and September, chiefly by searching with a lantern 

 at night, as they were then sitting quite exposed on the highest stems 

 of their food-plant. Beating oaks on the outskirts of woods and 

 bushes in hedges for larvae in August and September was a miserable 

 failure, as scarcely any could be obtained that way, though some 

 autumn larvae were very abundant in other places. Those of Hadena 

 oleracea simply swarmed on the tamarisk growing on the slopes facing 

 Dovercourt Bay, and when full grown were to be seen in hundreds 

 high up on the bushes, while others were constantly crossing the pave- 

 ments and paths, and scores were trodden under foot. The beautiful 

 larvae of Cucullia asteris were very numerous on Aster tripolium by the 

 sides of ditches in the salt marshes ; the conspicuous larvae of Hadena 

 pisi were equally plentiful on broom, the pretty larvae of Polia serena 

 were numerous on flowers of Crepis virens, while those of Emmelesia 

 unifasciata must have been in prodigious numbers on the flowers and 

 seeds of Bartsia, judging from the quantity I gathered in three small 



