235 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Male Lasiocampa quercus attracted by (?) Odonestis potatoria 

 Female. — On July 14th, in the neighbourhood of Abersoch, Car- 

 narvonshire, I found a very much crippled moth, which, with some 

 hesitation, I concluded was a female Odonestis potatoria. The wings 

 were almost scaleless and very short. I put the specimen in an 

 ordinary glass-bottomed pill-box, intending to try " sembling " in the 

 evening on the sand-hills. My companion put the box in his pocket, 

 and shortly afterwards, about 4 p.m., netted a moth which came per- 

 sistently flying round him. This moth was a male Lasiocampa quercus. 

 In the evening males of 0. potatoria " sembled " freely. Several 

 were boxed, and one paired with the crippled specimen, which un- 

 doubtedly was 0. potatoria. Whether it attracted the male L. quercus 

 in the afternoon, or whether it was merely a coincidence that the 

 latter came flying round, I am unable to say, but am inclined to think 

 it came on a false scent. I may add that we had not been taking 

 L. quercus, and none of our boxes had contained any female of this 

 species during this season. — A. Harrison; Delamere, S. Woodford. 



Re-occurrence in Britain of Pyralis lienigialis, Z. — So far as I 

 was aware last spring, the only captures of this species in Britain had 

 been made by Messrs. J. Bryan and W. Thompson, who secured 

 several specimens near Stony Stratford, Bucks, in and about the year 

 1880, as recorded by the latter gentleman in Entom. xiv. 84-85 (1881), 

 and also in Ent. Mo. Mag. xvii. 256 (1881). It was, therefore, with 

 special pleasure and interest that, on May 29th last, whilst glancing 

 through the collection of Lepidoptera formed by Mr. Vernon P. 

 Kitchen, just prior to its dispersal by auction at Mr. Stevens' rooms, 

 I caught sight of a specimen of Pyralis lienigialis, Z., standing in the 

 series of P. farinalis, L. Fortunately for me it apparently escaped 

 the notice of others, and the Lot in which it was included became my 

 property at a nominal figure. The individual in question was labelled 

 " Haddenham," and further information, kindly supplied by Mr. 

 Kitchen, shows that it was taken by him at Haddenham, Bucks, in 

 1903. It is a curious coincidence that the only two ascertained 

 British localities for this scarce insect (whose life-history is, I believe, 

 still altogether unknown), although lying rather over twenty miles 

 apart "as the crow flies," and very near the boundary-line of the 

 county, happen to be both situated in Buckinghamshire. — Eustace R. 

 Bankes ; Norden, Corfe Castle, August 19th, 1907. 



On the Discovery of the Food-plant of Aciptilia. (Buckleria) 

 paludum, Zell. — In the course of his kind references to myself in his 

 interesting note under the above heading [antea, pp. 187-8), the Rev. 

 0. P. Cambridge says, "There remained, however, one plant — the 

 sundew (Drosera) — whose likelihood to be the true one certainly never- 

 crossed our minds ; though Mr. Bankes tells me that it did occur to 

 iiim some few years ago, but only to be dismissed at the time as an 

 untenable idea." The matter is now of very secondary importance, 

 but since I am unable to accept this last clause as accurate, Mr. Cam- 

 bridge will, I feel sure, forgive me for mentioning that he must have 

 misunderstood some of my remarks to him on the point, as is proved 



