NOTES FEOM AN ESSEX LEPIDOPTERISt's DIARY. 179 



pronuba, Agrotis exclamationis, A. gemina, Miana fasciuncula, 

 M. strigilis, and H. oleracea, were abundant. Several fresh 

 Leucania pallens were sitting on the reeds drying their wings. 

 In the forenoon I took a fresh Trochilium apiformis on a poplar- 

 tree. On the 21st I sugared in another locality — a dark warm 

 night with no dew or moon. Moths were abundant, from sixteen 

 to twenty on every patch of sugar ; all those species seen the 

 previous night were present, with the exception of L. ohsoleta and 

 H. dentina, and, in addition, I boxed five L.favicolor (an insect 

 I had not seen for several years), Agrotis ripce (already worn), 

 Mamestra sordida (anceps), L. impura, Mania typica, Caradrina 

 morpheiis, N. c-nigrum, and Acronycta psi, or trideiis ; the latter 

 were abundant. The 23rd was fine and warm until 4 p.m., 

 when a drizzly rain set in until 7 o'clock, then it cleared for a 

 short time. In the forenoon I took one T. apiformis from 

 poplar, and several Hedya neglectana. In the evening I armed 

 myself with an umbrella and went to the lanes, &c., " sugar- 

 ing." Fine rain came on again, and by 10 o'clock it had 

 increased to a regular downpour. However, moths were quite 

 numerous, and I got five more L. favicolor, and saw all the 

 species noted on the 21st, with the addition of Xylophasia 

 lithoxylea, Aplecta advena, and Axylia putris. On the 26th I 

 bred Melanthia alhicillata, and beat about three dozen larvae of 

 Anticlea badiata, most of them full grown. Larvae of Malaco- 

 soma neustria were now abundant. When at Castor I obtained 

 a batch of ova of Ematurga atomaria, which began to hatch on 

 the 27th. I supplied them with white clover, Lotus corniculatus, 

 and knotgrass ; they nibbled at each, but finally settled down to 

 the knotgrass, at which I was pleased, as this is the easiest 

 plant of the three to keep fresh. (They eventually became full- 

 grown, and very pretty larvae they were ; I thought the moths 

 would emerge in the late summer, but they did not do so.) I 

 went to the woods in the forenoon on the 27th, but the weather 

 was rather dull, and insects were not moving. I got another T. 

 apiformis and one Crambus pinetellus, which is rather uncommon 

 here. I sugared in the lanes, &c., in the evening, and there 

 were plenty of visitors on each patch ; I boxed three L.Javicolor, 

 and, in addition to the species already seen, noticed Acronycta 

 megacephala, L. lithargyria, and N. plecta. The 28th was fine 

 and bright in the morning, but clouded over during the after- 

 noon, with warm light north-westerly breezes. In the woods, 

 notwithstanding the warm dark night, very few moths were 

 flying, and only seven visited the sugar, Palimpsestis {Cijmato- 

 phora) or being the best. The 29th was dull and warm. I took 

 a pair of T. apiformis in cop, high up on a poplar at 9 am. 

 The female laid a quantity of little round, shining, chocolate- 

 coloured eggs, with apparently no adhesive matter attached to 

 them, as they rolled loosely about in the box. I wonder where 



