146 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECOED. 



only copses which I worked without finding the Lnlfia, were Bordwood 

 and Littlecastle Wood, in the former of which the favoured kind of 

 lichen seems comparatively scarce. 



Solenobia, ? sp. A few in Centurion's Copse, amongst the Luffias ; 

 three, and a few empty cases in Littlecastle Wood (" America Wood"), 

 near Shanklin. 



Fumea caata, Pall, {intermeditila, Brd.). When Mr. H. H. May was 

 with me at Sandown last autumn, we were one morning seeking shelter 

 from a passing shower, on a seat on the beach near Littlestairs Point, 

 when he called my attention to two empty cases of this species spun up 

 on the arbour of sallow, &c., which overhung us. I therefore worked 

 the spot this spring, and found a dozen or so half-grown specimens of 

 F. casta, all quite Ioav dov\'n on the sallow trunks or on withered grass 

 stems close by ; as is well known, this species does not generally go up 

 to any height until full-fed. Judging from last years' cases, this is 

 one of the large forms of the species, and of course it is quite possible 

 it may turn out to be something interesting. A few typical cases of F. 

 casta were also found inland, in KoAvdown Copse and Littlecastle 

 Wood. 



Since my return to London I have given a little attention to tree- 

 trunks in Epping Forest, as there is some mystery about the Proutias 

 occurring there — one or two of my specimens having been determined 

 by Dr. Chapman as probable betidina, though apparently not absolutely 

 identical with Mr. Whittle's, while others are supposed to he^'eppiiu/ella, 

 n. sp." — and more material is highly desirable. Thus far, I have only 

 found four, three on one hawthorn trunk, and one on another ; they are 

 not yet full-grown, and I find they eat leaves of hawthorn and plum. The 

 only place where I have taken them, either this year or previously, is 

 near the Connaught Water, just to the eastward of the " Eed Path." 



In the same place, I found a very few larvfe of a SoUmobia, which 

 seems to me to agree entirely with my Sandown species ; also a few 

 empty cases of Famea casta. 



I have already alluded to my un.'^uccessful hunt for Diplodoma 

 liermlnata, Geoff, {marjiincpunctella, Stph.). I have to add that I was 

 highly pleased last Saturday (May 5th), to pick up a larva low down 

 on a willow trunk on the Sale, at Hale End. I have been a good deal 

 interested in Avatching its performances. I first put it in an empty 

 chip box, but an hour or two later I introduced Avith it a specimen of 

 the Sulenubia just mentioned ; opening the box again a iew minutes 

 afterAvards, to put in another, I found the i). heniunata Avatching at the 

 mouth of the first Solenobia case, like a cat at a mouse hole. Very 

 soon the occupant made its appearance, and liermlnata made a savage 

 pounce upon it ; but it Avas Avary enough to AvithdraAv itself rapidly into 

 its domicile, and I then remoA^ed it out of the Avay of harm. On my 

 return home, I offered my Diplodoma the first animal food Avhich came to 

 hand, namely a dead Coccinella and Fndrosls Avhich I found in a 

 spider's Aveb ; the former Avas apparently too hard and dry, but the 

 latter seems to haA'e pleased it AA'ell, for by the next morning its case 

 Avas Avell adorned AAdth pieces of the AA'ing, quite in the approved style. 



I may add that Clark and Machin in a ]\IS. list of the Micro- 

 lepidoptera of the London district Avhich noAv lies in my hands (as 

 editor of the City of London Entomological Society's Local List), 

 record both Diplodoma hcrmlnata and Xanjcla )nonlUj'era (Xijsmatodoma 



