2g(J ' [December, 



plants were very wet, the moth apparently became more active, and before I was 

 compelled by the approach of train time to drag my weary limbs to the nearest 

 railway station, I had secured a score of specimens, several C. latistrius occurring 

 along with them. Many dozens of C. geniculeus also were caught, and thrown 

 away, for it was very hard to determine the species when on the wing, yet I think 

 that geniculeus looked yellower when flying, alpinellus whiter, and the latter had a 

 sharper, more lively flight. 



As a rule one or two specimens of alpinellus in a season are all that can be 

 reckoned upon on this coast, and some special influence must have been at work 

 (apparently the thunder storm) to induce them to move so freely on this occasion. 

 I spent many hours in looking for them on subsequent occasions, but met with one 

 more only. 



Since the time when Mr. Moncreaff used to take it rather freely near Portb- 

 mouth (on ground which has, I hear, since been occupied), very few captures have 

 been recorded. Casual specimens have been taken at Yarmouth, and elsewhere on 

 the coast, but it is still very scarce. 



When the rain comes on or a cold wind blows, so that the few insects frequent- 

 ing them will not move, these coast sands are very desolate. Perhaps the most 

 interesting objects then to be found are the pretty varieties of Helix virgata (some 

 very large), brown, pure white, rayed, or with the band waved. — Chas. Gt. Barrett, 

 King's Lynn, Norfolk : September, 1888. 



Plusia ni at Portland. — I have recently had the pleasure of examining a very 

 rare British moth, a genuine specimen of Plusia ni, Hb. I found it among some 

 Noctuce. sent for examination by Major Partridge, of The Castle, Portland. He 

 says, " one night in September I had been out sugaring, and while passing down the 

 terrace in my garden, which is within a few yards of the sea, an insect flew down to 

 my light and fell to the ground. On examining it I at once saw that I had got some- 

 thing out of the common way. It looked uncommonly like P. ni, but I feared it 

 was too good to be true." The specimen is a very perfect Plusia ni, and a most 

 satisfactory confirmation of the title of the species to be included in the British 

 list. As Plusia ni must now be fully admitted to rank as a British species, a few 

 words upon the characters which distinguish it from the closely allied species may 

 be useful. It is most nearly related to P. gamma, but smaller, hardly so large as 

 P. interrogationis. It is a somewhat paler, greyer insect than either ; the y-m'ark 

 is entire and straighter than in gamma, that is, not so curved upwards, and the sub- 

 terminal line ie much indented and rather indistinct, but has several black wedge- 

 sJiape streaks springing from it. and pointing towards the base of the wing. The 

 small tufts of scales at the sides of the abdomen are yelloivish.—lD.- : Nov. 12th, 1888. 



Tortrix piceana, L., in Surrey.— It may be of interest, as supplementing 

 Mr. C. Gr. Barrett's note on this species {ante p. 139), to put on record recent 

 captures that have come under my notice. A single specimen was taken on the wing 

 in the neighbourhood of Esher, Surrey, in 1885. One was bred from a larva found 

 feeding in united needles of Pinus sylvestris in the following year ; ai]d one other 

 has been captured, and another bred since, from the same locality. — Eobert Adkin, 

 Lcwisham : November, 1888. 



