NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 71 



Eupithecia larvae were common on Galium, Artemisia, and Senecio. 

 Dusking was not very successful, and sugaring on the cliffs was 

 unproductive during the greater part of the month. By far the 

 most common insect at sugar in the Courtenay Woods was Amphi- 

 pyra lyyramidea, which came freely during the last days of our 

 visit. On one occasion five were successfully boxed from one patch. 

 Four Lymantria monacha came to the lantern one night in a pine 

 wood. The flowers of Senecio near the sea were not worth working, 

 although in 1912 at Sutton-on-Sea common species swarmed on it. 

 — G. Hanson Sale ; Littleover House, Littleover, Derby. 



Moths casually passing more than a Year in the Pupal 

 State.— Mr. Kobert Lawson's note upon some examples of Biston 

 hirtaria, which spent nearly three years as puptE with him (Entom. 

 xlvi. p. 332), interests me much, as I have long suspected that to 

 something of this kind may perhaps be attributed the extra 

 abundance of certain insects in certain years so often remarked 

 upon. I have had several species of catei-pillars from time to time 

 in my rearing cages, that have missed the usual time of emergence, 

 and duly turned to imagines in the following year ; but will, mean- 

 while, only mention one case which is curiously like that referred to 

 by Mr. Lawson. In August and September, 1888, larvas of Notodonta 

 ziczdc happened to be unusually numerous round Berwick-on-Tweed, 

 and a number of them were transferred to the breeding cages. 

 Most of these duly emerged in the following year, from May 22nd up 

 to July 14th, but a few pupas remained alive in the cage till 1891, 

 when one perfect insect emerged from one of them on July 18th, 

 none of the remainder being then alive. But the point I particularly 

 wish to emphasize is that, although upon the poplar trees from 

 which the larvae had been gathered in 1888, no ziczac caterpillars 

 appeared in either 1889 or 1890, in the autumn of 1891 they were 

 again numerous. It might, of course, have been no more than a 

 coincidence, but it strongly suggested some conditions, climatic or 

 otherwise, especially favourable to the species, and common to the 

 years 1888 and 1891; as well as that certain of the wild insects might 

 also have passed the intervening two summers in the pupal state. — 

 George Bolam; Alston, Cumberland. 



Lithostege griseata Second Brood. — I had a few larvae of this 

 species last year which duly pupated, and I was much surprised to 

 find on looking at the cages in September that five moths had 

 emerged (two males and three females). They had evidently paired 

 and laid, as there were some old eggshells about, but the larvee had of 

 course perished. This may account for the scarcity of the species 

 some seasons, as if there is a second emergence the resulting larvae 

 would surely perish, as the Sisymbrium would be dying and the seeds 

 fallen before the larvae could feed up. — H. M. Edelsten ; Forty Hill, 

 Enfield. 



" The Verrall Supper." — No entomological event of the year, 

 as we have before asserted, is of greater social interest or of more 

 value for founding friendships than the "Verrall" supper, which 

 annually perpetuates the memory of those given by the late G. H. 

 Verrall and that of the donor. In 1913 the number of guests was 



