CAPTURES AND FIELD REPORTS. 91 



the occurence of the former so far inland is decidedly improbable, 

 and the proximity of an ash tree to my house further justifies tlie 

 assumption that the individual is fraxinata. I have therefore placed 

 it accordingly. — Archibald Day ; The Vicarage, Malvern Links, 

 March 22nd, 1908. 



Notes prom the North- West (continued from p. 66). — On the 

 davus locality in the Delamere district we counted eight rather 

 worn specimens of this butterfly on the 20th. The ground is now 

 protected by gamekeepers, but whether or not their advent will 

 restore the butterfly to its former numbers remains to be seen. 

 Other heath and fir insects were observed as L. cegon (not so plenti- 

 ful as in 1906), NevieopJiila russula, Ematurga atomaria, Bicpalus 

 'piniaria, Aspilates strigillaria, Macaria liturata (with the dark form 

 nigrofulvata), Grambus margaritellus, and Pleurota hicostella. V. urticce 

 and Epinepliele ianira were numerous and fresh, and many L. quer- 

 cus males were dashing about. For the first time in my experience 

 of the Delamere district I found a larva of Saturnia carpini. 



On July 21st seven males and one female of Scocliona helgiaria 

 were taken on the Denbighshire hills. The remainder of the month 

 was made up of cool, unsettled weather, and " the coldest July on 

 record" ended on the 31st. 



August 1st was a fine day in Denbighshire, and fairly warm and 

 sunny. Starting in the morning with Mr. J. Thompson, we had an 

 enjoyable ramble of some twenty miles over the mountains from 

 Wrexham to Llangollen. A male L. quercus was seen — attracted by 

 a perforated zinc box which had contained a virgin female. A very 

 dilapidated female, which had laid its eggs, was picked off the 

 heather and then set at liberty. Some specimens of a dull form of 

 Agrotis piorphyrea [strigula) were netted. Other Lepidoptera were 

 pale and type forms of Larentia didymata, Crambus culmellus, 

 Aphelia osseana, and the pretty little tortrix Eupacilia angustana. 

 A Scoparia was also common on the heather, and as I had taken 

 the same species in Delamere Forest in July, and on Arnside 

 Knott, North Lancashire, in August, 1906, I sent specimens to Mr. 

 Eustace R. Bankes, who kindly identified them as S. ambigualis. A 

 large grey spider [Epeira diademata) with brown, blotched markings 

 was taken from its geometrical mesh. I kept it alive on a piece of 

 heath for three months in a glass jar, where it at once constructed 

 another mesh regardless of the fact that no flies could enter through 

 the net covering. It was supplied daily with house flies, and it was 

 interesting to note that it only seized its prey when the latter strug- 

 gled in the mesh. Other flies often brushed close past, and even 

 touched the spider, but were never seized. In fact, the whole was an 

 exhibition of how instinct ends and reason never begins. Its power 

 of sight did not appear to extend beyond an inch or two, and the 

 sense of hearing seemed supplanted by a keen sense of vibration. At the 

 end of the three months I handed it over to a member of our " Society 

 of Natural Science, Literature and Art," which, by the way, was 

 founded by Charles Kingsley, and now numbers over a thousand 

 members. 



As we sat eating our lunch on the top of Minera Mountain it was 



