Scent Glands in Lepidoptcra. 395 



under my notice. My words, ' I cannot say .... as a whole,' 

 (P- d>^3> 1- 25-26) were inserted because I knew objections 

 were always liable to be raised, especially in carnivorous mam- 

 mals ; in hoofed mammals, objections are not so likely to be 

 made because their life in captivity approaches much nearer 

 in food, etc., to that of the wild state. I should hke to make 

 it clear that the wording of the other Zoo specimen was not 

 meant to be hostile to Mr. Pocock ; it was so worded as an 

 attempt to draw information from some reader about the 

 Martens in that locality.— F. D. Welch, M.R.C.S. 



BOTANY. 



Viola rupestris var. glabrescens in Yorkshire. — On 



May 17th last, on Scoska Moor, above Litton Woods. I found 

 two violets which seemed to be new to me. I submitted them 

 to Mrs. Gregory, of Cambridge, who writes, ' Your violets are 

 very near, if not quite, V . rupestris \'ar. ^lahrescens .... the 

 plant is differentiated from V. Riviniana 1. minor by its stipules, 

 which are broader with canma-\\\<e teeth, instead of the loose 

 fringed stipules of all forms of Riviniana. This is a new record 

 for the county. — C. Waterfall., Chester. 



: o : 



SCENT GLANDS IN LEPIDOPTERA. 



In response to Mr. Porritt's request (page 364) for records on the spring 

 pairing of hybernating lepidoptera, I give the following from my note- 

 book : — ' In Deffer Wood, April gth, 191 3, found Cerastis vaccinii paired.' 

 ' During early April, 1907, took seven specimens of Calocampa exoleta at 

 sallow bloom, five males and two females. The females were kept alive 

 for a considerable time by being fed with a sweetened sponge, but they 

 both died without laying eggs.' 



Mr. W. G. Sheldon obtained ova of Peronea cvistmia for the first time, 

 and was thereby able to give the life-historj' of the species, by sleeving 

 out both sexes through the winter (see The Entomologist, pp. 219-220, 191 7) • 



For Xyliiia semibrunnea see Ent. Record, Vol. XIII., page 249, and on 

 the necessity of keeping through the winter, both sexes of Hoporina croceago 

 when eggs are wanted see Tutt's ' Practical Hints,' Vol. II., page 3. 



I think I have seen Depressaria app/ana paii-ed in spring but have kept 

 no record, and regret my inability to find the note on the spring pairing 

 of Vanessa urticae on which I based my assertion, it is hidden somewhere 

 in some magazine. Dasypolia tenipli, on the other hand, pairs in the 

 autumn and the males die off before the winter (see The Naturalist, p. 430. 

 1910). 



Perhaps it will now be of interest to give my reasons for the belief 

 in the importance of vibrations to lepidoptera. The conviction is based 

 on what I think is a solution of the problem of moths flying on to a sheet 

 when one is used with the light-collecting method on Wicken Fen. 



A white sheet, about seven feet high and four yards broad, is stretched 

 broadside to the wind. To the windward of it a lamp is placed on a stand 

 about forty inches high. Very few moths indeed go to the lamp at all, 

 the vast majority fly with a thump on to the sheet. On a good night the 

 swarms of diptera, coleoptera, trichoptera, etc., besides lepidoptera 



iniSDec. 1. 



