135 



NOTES FEOM AN ESSEX LEPIDOPTERIST'S DIARY 

 FOR 1911. 



By Paymaster-in-Chief Gervase F.Mathew, R.N., F.E.S., &c. 



May was mainly a fine bright month, and some of the days 

 were very hot ; there was scarcely any rain, except a few 

 showers on the 2nd and 3rd, rather wet on the 14th, and a 

 shower or two on the 30th. From the 18th to the 21st the 

 weather was very dull, with keen north-easterly wind. There 

 was a good deal of wind during the month. On the 1st Catoptria 

 ulicetana was noticed flying about furze-bushes, in the hot sun- 

 shine, in great numbers ; and at night some larvae of TripJmna 

 orhona, T. ianthina, Noctua triangidum and Boarmia repandata, 

 were beaten from hawthorn— mostly full grown. The first 

 P. napi was noticed on the 3rd, and a beautiful red variety of 

 Tcsniocampa gracilis was bred from New Forest larvse. On the 

 4th a boy brought me a male Dicranura vinula, which had been 

 attracted by the electric lights at Parkeston, and in the evening 

 I visited the woods and beat some larvae of T. fimbria, N. baja, 

 &c. ; it was a warm night with gentle south-westerly breeze, but 

 I did not see a moth on the wing. The first Pieris brassicce 

 was observed on the 6th, two Cyaniris argiolus were taken, and 

 Asthena luteata bred. On the 8th Amphidasys betidaria ab. 

 doubledayaria was reared from the only larva taken last year, 

 and F'umea radiella, male, was captured flying among coarse 

 grass on the sea-bank. The 9th was gloriously bright and 

 warm, and in the evening I tried beating hedges near the 

 salterns and obtained a few larvse of Lasiocampa quercus, 

 T. interjecta, N. augur, Crocallis elinguaria, &c. It was a windy 

 night, with a bright moon and heavy dew, and the only moths 

 noticed were a few E. pumilata and one Xanthorrhoe Jiuctuata. 

 Euchloe cardamines was bred on the 10th, and on this day I saw 

 the first swifts. Four Eupithecia dodoneata were taken on 

 trunks of Ilex, and one Lycia hirtaria (which is a rare moth in 

 this neighbourhood) from a paling. On the 12th, a bright 

 morning, I took a female S. carpini, bred on the 11th, placed her 

 on a hedge in a likely-looking spot, and waited for nearly two 

 hours, but no male was attracted — perhaps they were not yet 

 out. The 13th was fine and hot, with thunder-clouds about, 

 and distant thunder. I went to the woods in the forenoon ; 

 A. cardamines was just appearing, there were plenty of P. rapes 

 and P. napi, and from the bushes I beat Numeria pidveraria, 

 L. petraria, V. maculata, C. ferrugata, C. unidentaria, Phoxop- 

 teryx lundana and P. Icetana, and one small larva of Limenitis 

 Sibylla was noticed. Before I left home in the morning I 

 placed the S. carpini female, bred on the 11th, in a box with 

 lid slightly open, in my garden, and when I returned at 1 p.m. 



