﻿134 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



suppressed, though there may be a tendency to pink. Ordinary melanic 

 races, such as occur in the North of England, seem to be entirely different, 

 and due to different causes. — T. D. A. Cockerell; February 26, 1890. 



Phigalia pedaria (pilosaria) in January. — As an example of the 

 effect of the mildness of January, I may mention that I captured a male 

 P. pedaria on the night of the lith of that month, at 8.45, the temperature 

 being at the time 50°. It was at rest on a gas-lamp (at Balham), and 

 apparently quite recently emerged. Upon referring to my notes of the last 

 ten years, I find the earliest date I had hitherto taken this species was on 

 February 19 th, 1881, and that the first week in March is the usual time 

 for its appearance. — F. W. Frohawk ; Balham, S.W. 



During a short walk on January 26th, I took five Phigalia pedaria and 

 half a dozen Hybemia leucophaaria, at rest on the sheltered sides of fences, 

 excellent evidence this of the mildness of the season ; we have March in 

 January. — F. W. Biddle ; Lanherne, Albemarle Road, Beckenham. 



Phigalia pedaria has appeared here very early this year. I took seven 

 specimens on January 16tb. The earliest date at which I have previously 

 seen this species is February 16th. — Wm. Reid ; Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire. 



[The usual time for the appearance of this species is perhaps between 

 the middle of March and the middle of April, but it has been observed as 

 early as November and December, and so late as the middle of June. Vide 

 Entom. xx. pp. 64, 110; xxi. p. 91 ; xxii. p. 113. — Ed.] 



Arctia caia. — I found some thirty larvse at the beginning of June last 

 year, and as I had heard that feeding them on coltsfoot produced the best 

 varieties, I reared them on this plant alone, but of the imagines bred there- 

 from not one was a variety. Two of the females deposited ova, and when 

 they hatched I gave the larvse lettuce that was seeding to feed on. This food 

 getting scarce when they were about half-grown, I fed them on a weed that 

 grows among the turnips ; the farmers call it " rednees," a species of Per- 

 sicaria I suppose it is ; and they fed on it ravenously. Some two hundred 

 of them refused to thrive, and I planted them out to hybernate. About 

 200 insects emerged ; a great many were cripples, but 50 of the specimens 

 were good varieties : hind wings buff to very dark brick-red, approaching a 

 suffused smoky colour; some have beautifully marked fore wings. On the 

 whole I am very well pleased with the result. — William Johnson; Bank- 

 houses, Aspul, near Wigan. 



Gas-lamp Entomology. — As a doubt appears to exist in the minds of 

 some entomologists as to whether the Sphingidse are prone to the 

 attractions of the gas-lamp, the following incident may be worth recording. 

 It is some years since I systematically worked the lamps, but I well 

 remember an occasion, when having spent the evening in mothing along 

 the hedge-rows of what was then known as Burnt Ash Lane, — possibly 

 one of the best suburban hunting-grounds in the district, — and darkness 

 having some time set in, I was preparing to work the gas-lamps on my way 

 home. The first few of these stood well out in the open, and on approaching 

 number one I beheld what had the appearance of a bat suspended from the 

 top rail of the frame, but on going forward to secure my prize found, 

 instead of the bat, a couple of Smerinthus populi hanging on to the iron, 

 side by side, within an inch of each other ; on the next lamp visited was 

 another ; and on the next, a fourth ; — all within a distance of some hundred 



