﻿324 tH£ ENTOMoLOGlS*. 



species ! Well, the result is that I have bred about forty specimens. They 

 are as easy to breed as JV. tilm, which also put in appearance in fair 

 numbers. B. hippocastanella, from lime ; a few JV. ruficapitella, from oak; 

 N. salicis, from the silver-leaved osier, the larva feeding nearly at the tip, 

 quite a different way to the usual well-known salicis mine. Mr. Threlfall 

 did not recognise the mine, more about this next October ; one odd 

 JV. poterii only out of five larvae ; JV. argentipedella and JV. betulicola, 

 from birch ; a series of JV. plagicolella, from sloe ; only two JV. angu- 

 lifasciella; I find this bad to breed; out of twelve JV. serella I bred about 

 ten ; they were the latest of all, if I may except JV. luteella. Now, here is 

 a puzzle : — In October I got some mines close to home, expecting them to 

 be some new species. I sent mines for Dr. Wood's opinion, and he 

 referred them to JV. lapponica ; well, I sent him the moths, having bred over 

 a score, and said all had come out JV, luteella. He suggested I had made a 

 mistake, or that they were in a pot where the pupae of luteella had lain 

 over. I am pretty sure I had not, because I only put the queer salicis and 

 the mines referred to in a pot separate from anything else and labelled the 

 pot carefully. Now we will leave Nepticulce and proceed to odds and ends. 

 Only two Coccyx scopariana came out; I did not want any, so spent no 

 time after the larva last July. Penthina postremana came out until the 

 end of May very large and fine; a good series of this from the stems of 

 the balsam {C. noli-me-tangere). By the way, I have omitted to say I bred 

 about fifty fine specimens of Coccyx vacciniana, from bilberry. I met with 

 a small patch with the leaves all stripped off; the larvae had rolled them- 

 selves round the stem with the dead leaves. The second week in May I 

 went two rather long journeys for Micropteryx salojnella, and only got four 

 and some M. sparmannella. Third week in May, a very unfavourable day, 

 a glimpse of sun now and again with a high wind, I got a dozen fine 

 Catoptria aspidiscana among the golden-rod ; a few of the lovely P. lewen- 

 lwekella were walking about on the barest place where the Helianthemum 

 grows. On the sunny side, sheltered from the strong wind, I boxed about 

 eighty mixed Nepticula icoolhopiella and JV". argentipedella. The tips of 

 the birch produced several species. On a little shady banl^>oiJVaccinium 

 C. vacciniana were flying in plenty. With two nets all boxes were soon 

 filled. My son said, " This is moth-catching made easy." He sat down, 

 smoking his weed — " and here is another; hand me the other net." Do 

 not think this would be so at any time, — no sun, no moths ; they drop 

 instantly, whenever the sun is obscured. By the way, when I looked in a 

 pot in which I had put a lot of seeds from angelica, expecting that probably 

 T. mediana (= aurana) might turn up, to my surprise there were nine E. 

 lucipara out ; I did not notice any larva. Now (Ecopliora flavimaculella is 

 appearing; Ornix anglicella and two Lithocolletis cavella have turned up at 

 my own door. On Whit Saturday I took advantage of a cheap trip to 

 Windermere. Until the season sets in it is too dear — 8s. 2d. for return, 

 52 miles. I have not had such a chance for years. The woods were 

 nearly dried up. I was surprised to see such a lot of moths stirring. 

 Geometers pretty common, in fact C. corylata, M. albicillata, and even 

 Eupithecia plumbeolata was out among the Melampyrum arvensis ; I used 

 to take this in July. There were very few Lithocolletis. An odd green 

 silver-lines (H. prasinana) swept into my net from time to time. The old 

 places where I used to take M. mansuetella have yielded none for years. I 

 got entangled in a rough thicket, and made for a light place about ten 



