CURRENT NOTES. T68 



picked up by a boy at Twyford, and betrays the usual amount of 

 damage suffered by moths taken under similar circumstances. One 

 forev^ing is slit and both wings are rubbed, the body plumage is good. 

 My object in recording this find is to elicit information, as September 

 is the month we associate with Ai/ritis convoLvuli. Can this moth be 

 a survival of last year's British emergence, or can it have arrived from 

 some southern continental station, or is it possible it can have emerged 

 now from pupa bred here during the autumn of 1905 ? — J. Clarke, 

 Reading. May 21th, 1906. [This is a most interesting record. Con- 

 cerning it, reference may be made to The Natural History of the British 

 Lepidoptera, iv., p. 843 (Syme's note on a spring emergence ; pp. 375 

 et seq. (records of specimens taken during emigration); p. 377 (Powell's 

 experience in breeding spring imagines) ; pp. 377-378 (the records of 

 spring immigrants arriving in the British Islands in June and early 

 July) ; pp. 386 et seq. (capture of examples on June 2nd, 1901, at 

 Portland), etc. If this is to be a " convolvuli " year, every early record 

 will be of importance. — Ed.] 



DiMORPHA VERSICOLORA AND StaUROPUS FAGI NEAR READING. 



Dimorpha versicolora was out on April 13fch, males coming to, and 

 pairing with, bred females. Ova of this species excluded on the above 

 date, are to-day (May 27fch) hatching out. On the 24th inst. I found 

 my first Stauropus fagi, sitting, according to its habit, on the trunk of 

 a small beech-tree. — Ibid. 



The Arrival of Plusia gamma. — Yesterday, May 28th, I took one 

 of two specimens of this insect, which were flying rather leisurely in 

 the bright sunshine. To-day the species is simply swarming here, the 

 clover fields being alive with the insects. The specimens are not by 

 any means in their first beauty, but the fringes are not badly injured, 

 nor are the thoraces much worn. The form is grey, without ttace of 

 red, I imagine that the beautiful weather has encouraged an 

 emigration from foreign parts, and hope that similar conditions 

 may induce other vs'anderers to visit our islands during this year.— ~ 

 (Rev.) C. R. N. Burrows, Mucking. May 29th, 1906. 



URRENT NOTES. 



At the conversazione of the Royal Society, held on May 9th, at Burling- 

 ton House, we noticed, amongst others, the following entomologists 

 present — Messrs. Austin, H. Rowland-Brown, A. J. Chitty, J. Collin, H. 

 St. J. Donisthorpe, H. Druce, F. Enock, A. H. Jones, W. J. Lucas, F. 

 Merrifield, B. W. Neave, and Edward Saunders, Professors T. Hudson 

 Beare, E. B. Poulton and Dr. Dixey. There were no exhibits directly 

 connected with entomology with the exception of " Berlese's apparatus 

 for capturing minute insects and arachnids," exhibited by Mr. Cecil 

 Warburton, which attracted much attention from the entomologists 

 present. This consisted of a hollow inverted metal cone sur- 

 rounded by a water-jacket. A wire-gauze tray, carrying moss or 

 other material, rests on the open base of the cone. When the water in 

 the jacket is raised to a temperature of about 70° C, all the creatures 

 Uying in the moss descend^ and, finding the sides of the cone Jioo hot 

 for a footing, fall into the vessel arranged beneath to receive them ; it 

 is necessary that the apical angle of the cone should be small. 



