196 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



feed up at a great pace. When first hatched the larva is black, and the 

 skin very rough ; after the first change it is black, then green with 

 orange spots, and turns yellow before it pupates. We caught twelve 

 Hesperia nostrodamus in one small patch of rough grass on the 27th. 

 They were mostly very good specimens, and seemed very fond of 

 sitting on the lumps of earth. C. edusa was about in fair numbers. 

 By watching the plumbago bushes in the evenings I caught ten C. 

 celerio : one evening I caught three specimens, and on another two. 

 They are very regular in their appearance, always coming from 6.15 

 to 6.45. A friend used to watch them hovering round some begonia 

 plants he had in pots in his verandah, and by this means got some 

 ova, which are green at first and laid singly on the upper or lower 

 side of the leaves. The larva hatches out in about nine days, and is 

 light green with a long pink horn. When about a week old it has two 

 purple eye-like marks on the enlarged segments behind the head. 

 There are brown and green varieties of larvae, as in C. elpenor. On 

 Sept. 3rd we went to a field in an open plain, where my father had 

 seen two or three Deiopeia pulchella a day or two before, when he was 

 riding. We caught twenty-five without any trouble, and as many the 

 next day, and were able to bring back some live females which laid a 

 lot of ova. These hatched in about five days, and fed on a plant 

 which abounded in tlie field where we caught them ; it was a low- 

 growing plant witli woolly leaves. The larviB fed-up well, and were 

 brown with reddish spots and some black hairs when I last saw 

 them. The last species 1 caught before leaving was Ar[/ynnis 

 pandora, a very worn female, which we induced to lay by giving her 

 some violet-roots in water in a breeding-cage. This is the only one I 

 have seen here, and the date (Sept. IGth) seems very late. The next 

 day a good Euprepia jmdica was brought to us. Some of the moths I 

 got at light and while butterflying are : — Grammodes bifasciata and 6r. 

 algira, Leucanitis stolida, Catocala electa, Hemerophila abriiptaria, Acontia 

 luctuosa, Noctua nignwi, larvae of Acronycta psi. I noticed a rather 

 interesting example of memory and protective colouring, for in a long 

 hedge of geranium there was one white leaf, and on this a white 

 butterfly or two used to roost regularly for over a week. We did not 

 see much of Sphi7ix convolvuli, but we were early, I think, for its 

 appearance, as we left on Sept. 17th. Pi/raiaeis cardui, Vanessa 

 atalanta, Parage egeria, and the two whites, Pieris rapa; and P. brassicce, 

 were not very common, but Lycftna argiolus was abundant. During 

 the end of August Macrogloxsa steUatarum was common always. There 

 was only rain on two occasions, and then only showers, but from 

 Christmas to Easter it does rain. — Gr. Meade-Waldo ; Eaton College. 



Plusia moneta, &c., at Finchley. — P. vioneta appears to be fairly 

 well established here, as by searching Aconitum I have taken the larvae 

 in three gardens widely apart. Night- searching for larvae at Hamp- 

 stead during the past two weeks has resulted in my taking Noctua 

 dUrapeziam, which species, however, is not so plentiful as has been the 

 case hitherto. Noctua trianguluin, N. festiva, N. augur, N. haia, Tri- 

 phcBna fimbria, T. comes, Mania typica, Leucania lithargyria, L. ivipura, 

 were all more or less plentiful.— V. E. Shaw; 8, Moss Hall Grove, 

 North Finchley, May 29th, 1902. 



