1888.] G5 



Catephia alchymista, Schiff., at St. Leonard's. — My eldest son caught a fine 

 specimen of this very rare moth at sugar, about 9.30 p.m. on the 24th of last month ; 

 it was captured on a wall towards the west end of St. Leonard's, on the high ground 

 near Maize Hill. I do not know if there has been any record of its capture since 

 1858, in which year Dr. Wallace took a specimen in the Isle of Wight, in the month 

 of September, as recorded in Ent. Ann. for 1859 : an excellent figure of it is given 

 on the frontispiece of the Annual for 1860. — Edward Saunders, St. Ann's, Mount 

 Hermon, Woking : July 11th, 1888. 



Abundance of Ocneria dispar, L.,near Algeqiras. — On June 28th last, I crossed 

 over from Gibraltar to Algeciras to explore some new ground between that town 

 and the village of Los Barrios. The lower slopes of the hills, on the left-hand side 

 of the road between these two places, are clothed with an open wood of large cork- 

 oaks, which, from a distance, presented a singularly bare and wintry appearance. 

 But I was not at all prepared for the remarkable entomological sight which met my 

 eyes when I entered these woods : for two or three miles at least, scarcely a leaf on 

 the cork trees had escaped the ravages of the larva? of Ocneria dispar, L. : the pupae, 

 living and empty, filled every crevice in the bark, and the great sluggish white ? 

 moths congregated in scores on the under-sides of the larger branches, which were 

 covered with their down-clothed patches of eggs. Their more volatile partners 

 meanwhile filled the air as thickly as the flakes in a snowstorm. Without exaggera- 

 tion, it would have been no difficult matter to have filled a wheelbarrow with 

 Ocneria dispar in any of its stages, except, perhaps, the larva?, though there was no 

 lack of late specimens of these. Hawthorn, apricot, and almond trees were served 

 almost as badly as the cork-oaks ; willows and poplars were eaten, but not to any 

 great extent ; and ash, alder, and wild olive were apparently untouched. None of 

 the larvae or pupae appeared to be infested with ichneumons or other parasites, 

 and the birds evidently did not care to eat them ; the only creature at all likely to 

 diminish their numbers was Calosoma sycophanta, L., but this handsome beetle 

 was by no means common, as I found only one very large $ specimen in the wood. 



Only twice before have I seen a spectacle of insect devastation at all approaching 

 the present : in 1870, when the larva; of Liparis chrysorrhaa left not a leaf on the 

 thorn hedges throughout the Isle of Sheppey ; and at Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, 

 in the summer of 1882, when all the oaks were stripped by the larvae of Therina 

 fervidaria, Walk., and- their trunks and branches were paved with the handsome 

 Geometrid moths in September. 



It is rather curious that I have never yet seen the larvae of Ocneria dispar in 

 the Cork Woods of San Roque, only some six miles distant from those of Los 

 Barrios, and have met with only about half a dozen £ moths there ; and the insect 

 appears equally scarce on the Rock of Gibraltar. The moths are for the most part 

 very clearly and brightly marked, but even smaller than the domesticated race so 

 commonly bred in England. — James J. Walkee, H.M.S. " Grappler," Gibraltar: 

 July 2nd, 1888. 



Note on the food-plant of Gelechia marmorea, Haw. — Last spring, when 

 collecting on the sand hills in this neighbourhood, I found the larvae of this species 

 freely on Silene conica, some mining the leaves, some boring down the shoots, and 

 others in sandy cases on the surface of the soil under the radical leaves. — W. H. B. 

 Fletcher, Worthing : April 30th, 1888. 



