CURRENT NOTES. 191 



Zyi/aena purpuralis {pilosella) , race nnbii/ena, " was so plentiful that it 

 would have been impossible to overlook it ; " only a few specimens of 

 Platijptilia tessaradacti/la were obtained. Bally vaughan, Co. Clare, 

 was the centre of the area collected over. Among other captures were 

 Leptosia sinapis a few, Ciipido minimus a few, Aegeria inuscifornris two, 

 Theretra porcellus very plentiful, Parasemia jilantaginis common, Setina 

 irrorella fairly common, Gnophos myrtillata {obfuscaria) one, Eupnthecia 

 venosata two of the smoky form, Antidea ciicullata three specimens, 

 Ennycliia octomacidata locally common, Hyponoiiietita padella larvfe 

 and cocoons in thousands in some spots along the coasts, HypercalUa 

 christiernella {citrinalis) one, believed to be new to Ireland, etc. At 

 Pontoon, in Co. Mayo, Coenonyiirpha tiphon was very abundant, Via- 

 crisia samiio (russula) was very common, Cymatophora or and C. fluc- 

 tuosa occurred, Eitcoswia nndidata fairly abundant, Tortrix viridana 

 one only on an island in Lough Conn, Acronicta leporina at treacle, 

 and Drepana falcula, among other species. The writer reports a yellow 

 aberration of Euchelia Jacobaeae taken in Tempo in June, 1915, and 

 also the occurrence of Sckoenobins macronellns in Sligo in July, 1915. 



The Proceedim/s of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian 

 Field Club have for many years past published reports of field-work, 

 containing a vast amount of useful detail, the result of patient and 

 continuous close observation. Of such a nature is the " Phenological 

 Report on First Appearances of Birds, Insects, etc., and First Flower- 

 ing of Plants in Dorset during 1915," by our correspondent, W. 

 Parkinson Curtis. This report of nearly 60 pages, with 5 plates, is 

 the summary of the returns of about a dozen active members of the 

 Society from various parts of the county. The entomological (Lepi- 

 doptera) notes are practically all by W. P. Curtis, and the section on 

 " Birds," with which the report is largely filled, is a descriptive 

 account, of which the " Coloration Problem " notes in our magazine 

 recently are the summary. This kind of work is tedious to carry on 

 and tedious to record, but probably nothing is more useful as a basis 

 for future generalisation. The first plate shows a tree-creeper, Certhia 

 fauiiliaris, race britannica g at nest, with a beakful of insects. 



The July number of the Canadian Entomologist contams two very 

 interesting articles. 1. An account of the Collection of Macro- 

 lepidoptera owned by F. H. Wolley Dod, by the owner. The special 

 feature of the collection is the North American Noctiddae, which have 

 been collected and studied largely from a point of view of variation. 

 All the insects are labelled in the modern way, with full data and with 

 a reference number to a set of MS. books containing critical notes. 

 Considerable trouble has been taken to make a card index somewhat 

 elaborate in detail. Each species and named form has a card devoted 

 to it, which contains its name, authority, reference to original descrip- 

 tion and date, to the more important bibliography and to catalogues, 

 to figures, to monographs, to genera and dates, the present locale of 

 the type, synonyms, with references to pages in MS. note books, to 

 slides of the genitalia, to drawer or box in the collection, etc. As is 

 stated it will be understood that the collection is essentially for study. 

 2. " The Death-feigning Instinct." After giving examples of this 

 habit from all classes of animals, the writer, E. Melville Duporte, 

 remarks that " It is among insects, however, that the death-feigning 

 instinct is most widely distributed, especially among the Coleoptera 



