NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 229 



21st. — About a month earlier I had obtained a batch of eggs 

 of Acidalia dimidiata, which hatched in a few days. The larvae 

 fed up rapidly on knotgrass, and the first moth emerged on the 

 21st. (None of these larvfe showed any disposition to hibernate ; 

 the last moth of the brood was bred on Sept. 9th.) 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Males op Bupalus piniaria attracted by a Spider. — On the 

 afternoon of June 11th we went into the pine woods to find females 

 of B. jnniaria, cand seeing about twenty or thirty males flying round 

 a head of bracken, we at once expected to find a female, but instead 

 we found the males "assembled" around a spider, belonging to the 

 genus Theridion (thanks to Dr. Jordan for name). The spider soon 

 captured a male, secured all its feet in a small web, and bit it under 

 the thorax ; I released the moth and removed the stem of bracken 

 with the spider on it away some twenty yards ; the males followed 

 and at once surrounded the spider. Thinking a female B. piniaria 

 might have been on the same stem, we transferred the spider to a 

 fresh stem of bracken, and again removed it some twenty yards 

 away. In a few seconds all the males had left the old stem and 

 gone to the spider; then, after allowing it to capture one more 

 Bwpahis, we killed the Theridion. Evidently the scent was with the 

 spider, for the male moths dispersed when it was bottled. Has any 

 entomologist made a similar observation? The Hon. Walter Eoths- 

 child suggests that the spider had devoured a female B. piniaria, 

 the scent of the same remaining. The spider itself was not so large 

 as the moth's body, and it could only have sucked the juices, still 

 the scent might have been retained. — J. J. Joicey and A. Noakes ; 

 The Hill, Witley, Surrey. 



Lepidoptera attracted by " Honey-dew" on Larch-Shoots. — 

 Whilst collecting in Northants amongst larches, several M. stella- 

 tarnm were noticed about 6 p.m., apparently feeding upon some 

 substance resembling mildew which had affected the shoots of the 

 trees. Whatever the deposit or growth might have been, it appeared 

 to be singularly attractive both to bees and insect life in general. 

 Later in the evening sugar was practically a failure, but an in- 

 spection of the larches with a lamp showed them to be swarming 

 with moths. There was nothing sweet in the taste of the affected 

 larch shoots. [The mildew-looking substance mentioned by our 

 correspondent was probably the woolly covering of the larch aphis 

 {Ghermes laricis, Hartig.). — Ed.] — G. B. Kershaw; West Wickham, 

 Kent. 



OviPOSiTiON OF Nemeobius lucina. — On May 30th a female of 

 this species, captured the day before, was placed on a growing plant 

 of Primula vulgaris, and although very little sun had been showing, 

 three eggs were deposited on the under side of a leaf some time 

 during the forenoon. Whilst watching the butterfly, about 5 o'clock 



BNTOM. — August, 1912. t 



