116 



forcing themselves in between it and the next ring, proceeded with it 

 in a like manner, rather than go from their usual method and attack 

 the exposed tops of the buds, which they could have done far more 

 easily, or eat the young leaves, of which there were plenty in the 

 cage. No doubt under forced conditions the larva would take other- 

 foods ; but habits so strongly ingrained as those already recited 

 point conclusively to the flower-buds of the ivy being the natural 

 pabulum of the autumn larvae ; and in the spring the flower-buds, 

 and later the young green berries of the holly, would offer precisely 

 similar opportunities to the early brood for practising the same 

 peculiar habits. 



Notes upon Agrotis auxiliaris, Grote. 



By W. Mansbridge, F.E.S, Read December lofh, 1896. 



I FIND that I shall have to call the subject of these notes not 

 A. subgothica, but ^4. auxiliaris, for although the entomologist of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture so named a specimen of the buff 

 form, I discovered when I visited the national collection in the 

 British Museum that my species was to be referred to auxiliaris. 

 It is with great regret that I make this admission, because there may 

 be some members present who have come especially to obtain a few 

 facts concerning A. subgothica. I can only apologise, and cite the 

 London fogs as aiding and abetting, because they have prevented me 

 examining collections on the only Saturday afternoons that were 

 available to me for study. I had hoped to find A. subgothica in the 

 North American collection of Doubleday, but was disappointed, and it 

 was only last week that I found opportunity to consult the types in the 

 Natural History Museum, when the knowledge of the error came too 

 late to announce any alteration. However, the present species, 

 although, so far as I am aware, having no especial interest or associa- 

 tions with British entomology, presents points of character which are 

 well w^orthy of our notice, since the variation runs on almost parallel 

 lines to that of A. tritici and A, acjuiiitia. 



All my specimens are from a North American district in the 

 Cherokee nation of the Indian territory, and were taken by myself 

 under the following circumstances. The granaries belonging to the 

 ranch where I was staying were mere wooden sheds, built of dressed 

 lumber, and supported about six inches from the ground upon stones 

 at the corners. The ground beneath them had never been ploughed 

 or broken, but was bare of herbage for some yards around. To 

 make good joints where the boards had bulged from the weight of 

 grain strips of quilting had been nailed, and it was behind these 

 strips that I found the moths in the daytijne. The granary was 



