125 



CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 



Phigalia pedaria ab. monachaeia. — Ten or twelve years ago I 

 took an example of this melanic aberration in Charnwood Forest. 

 In 1908 I took another specimen in the same locality, which I 

 brought home and placed in a breeding-cage, a roomy contrivance 

 with many chinks, with a typical female that had emerged from a 

 larva taken in the same wood. I did not notice that they paired, but 

 subsequently I found a few eggs laid around and in the groove of a 

 screw-head and in a joint adjacent to it. It was hardly possible to 

 get at these, and I waited till they hatched, as a result of which some 

 doubtless escaped ; at all events I only reared some two dozen larvae 

 or thereabouts. The moths emerged in March last from 18th to 23rd, 

 with the exception of a single male which appeared on Feb. 21st, 

 after which a long spell of cold weather ensued, '^'he sexes were in 

 equal proportion, eleven males and eleven females. Of the males 

 four were ab. monacharia, seven were typical, and there were no 

 intermediate forms ; of the females eight appeared to be more or less 

 typical— that is, the under side was copiously sprinkled with pale 

 grey or whitish, but the abdomen above in two examples was 

 brownish, in six blackish. The three remaining specimens were 

 black above, and the light grey powdering beneath was confined to 

 the thorax and legs, the under side of the abdomen being uniformly 

 dark grey or blackish. I was able to pair two of these dark females 

 with black males and obtained ova, and I also paired a couple of 

 typical males and females of the same stock. If I am successful in 

 rearing the progeny, the results will be of some interest. This black 

 variety or aberration of P. pedaria extends apparently over a con- 

 siderable area in the county of Leicester. It has been taken at 

 Knighton on the outskirts of Leicester, and, I think, also at Market 

 Bosworth by Mr. F. Bouskell, and in Charnwood Forest, as mentioned 

 above. An example has also been reported this year from Measham, 

 in the extreme north-west of the county. — (Rev.) W. G. Whittingham ; 

 Knighton Vicarage, Leicester. 



Amcebe olivata in April. — A newly emerged Larentia (Ainoebe) 

 olivata at Beaconsfield, April 18th. — C. G. Doughty; 27, South 

 Molton Street, W., April 19th, 1909. 



Brephos parthenias at Sallow-bloom. — This pretty moth 

 came freely to sallow-catkins in Delamere Forest, April 10th. From 

 a solitary bush, with a net fixed to the end of a bamboo eight or ten 

 feet long, I could have taken thirty to forty specimens in a couple of 

 hours, possibly more. Their chief feeding-time seemed to diminish 

 towards noon. The exceptional numbers on this occasion were 

 doubtless due to the warm, sunny day. A Vanessa urticcB also paid 

 a lengthened visit to the same bush. — J. Arkle ; Chester. 



Hybernia marginaria var. puscata. — -This variety occurs fre- 

 quently in Leicestershire, but the proportion of the true variety, 

 uniformly dark brownish with the markings imperceptible or nearly 

 so, is not greater, as far as my observation goes, than five per cent. 

 It varies in the depth of the colour. Examples, however, are much 

 more common in which, while the markings are conspicuous, the 



