258 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Notes on Lepidoptera. during July and August, 1901. — Last 

 month [ante, p. 228) I referred to the early appearance of many 

 insects this year. Since then imagines of Smerinthus populi and 

 S. ocellatus have emerged, the data of which are as follows : — S. populi, 

 larvae from ova June 4th, pupated July 3rd ; imago appeared July 

 2oth, at 7 p.m. I looked at them for the first time, and found a male 

 and female in coitu; I kept the female alive, and by the 30th she had 

 laid 125 ova. The second brood of larvae appeared on Aug. 5th, and 

 at the time of writing are in a flourishing condition. S. ocellatus, 

 larvas from ova June 5th, pupated July 12th ; imago appeared Aug. 9th. 

 I had only bred half a dozen of these, and curiously enough all the 

 moths were females, so I have not succeeded in getting a second brood. 

 S. tilicB and Sphinx ligustri also are much in advance as compared with 

 last year, for tilia; pupated July 7th, though the imagines have not yet 

 appeared ; and liijustri pupated on July 17th. The dates last year for 

 the pupating of the four above-mentioned insects were : — S. populi 

 and S. ocellatus, July SOth ; S. tilia, July 27th ; S. ligustri, Aug. 30th. 

 At 6.45 p.m., on July 5th, I observed Macroglossa stellatanim hovering 

 over a flower in my garden. It was completely in the shade, and 

 stayed there several minutes, never once setthng all the time. On July 

 7th, when I first saw my breeding cage at 7 a.m., I found that four 

 imagines of Catocala mcpta had emerged ; but even at that early hour 

 they had had time to knock themselves about, for a little piece was 

 out of the wings in each one. The rest of the imagines came out at 

 intervals from the above date till July 17th, never again more than 

 two together, and all these were perfect specimens. The larvae had 

 emerged on April 27th, and they begun to pupate, some in moss and 

 others between two leaves of their food-plant, willow, on June 4th. 

 On July 8th the first pupa^ appeared from my batch of Xemeobius 

 lucina. On July 10th we had a good day on Eanmore Common, where 

 Argyjinis adippe and A. aglaia were out in great numbers; but they 

 were very wild and difficult to catch, as the going was bad among the 

 gorse and bramble-bushes. A friend of mine, who takes a great 

 interest in entomology, though he does not collect, told me that on the 

 afternoon of July 12th, while he was walking in Horning churchyard, 

 in Norfolk, he observed a very fine specimen of Papilio machaon on a 

 sweet-william blossom. He got quite close to it, and could have 

 caught it easily if he had had a net with him. After some time it left 

 the flower, and, hovering in a circle for a few moments, alighted again 

 on the same place ; but in about ten seconds it flew right away high 

 up in the air, and he did not see it again. On July 13th a batch of 

 larvae appeared from ova of Sphinx pinastri, which I obtained from 

 abroad. They did very well until Aug. 11th, when for some reason or 

 other they all died. Most of them had successfully passed the fourth 

 moult, and were eating at a great rate ; but they suddenly ceased 

 feeding and shrivelled up. On the same date I found a great number 

 of larvas of Euchelia jacobace feeding on ragwort, and for the next ten 

 days or so I kept finding them. They had all pupated by the end of 

 the month. On July 16th I obtained a good number of Hesperia 

 comma on Eanmore. I knew they must be about in our neighbour- 

 hood, but had never found them before. The same remark applies to 

 Lyccena corydon, for in former years I had always succeeded in getting 



