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yards square, where I swept a mansuetella; I looked round and, as usual, 

 there the meadow-sweet grew. I cleared away some brambles for net 

 room, and got about fifty specimens, the finest I ever saw, I put the 

 boxes in a tin box, among the cold leaves, and got them home in fine con- 

 dition. I went again on the Monday, and had the greatest trouble in find- 

 ing the place. To be out of the way of painters and other workmen in 

 the house, I went to Windermere for a month, but unfortunately left 

 behind one of my pots containing pupse of Cidaria reticulata. When I 

 came home I found that the flower of my hopes was wrecked, for what are 

 called " church-lice " and " wire-worms " had left nothing but a lot of wings. 

 I was disgusted to count the remains of twenty-two specimens of the 

 Cidaria. My other pot has produced ten fine large reticulata ; one a 

 remarkably fine variety, one-half of the fore wings (the outer half), being 

 of a smoky amber colour; two others are partly in that direction. I must 

 have a look over my captures, and will note them in the next article. 

 — J. B. Hodgkinson ; Ashton-OD-Kibble, July 12, 1890. 



A Hint to Pup/E-diggeks. — Now that the season for imagos is 

 waning, collectors will be going forth with their trowels, and turning up 

 the sod in search of pupae. This turning up the sod is by no means always 

 an easy matter, especially at such trees which are not regularly dug. To 

 reduce this labour of digging to a minimum, let the digger provide himself 

 with an ordinary garden trowel, and in addition to this he must procure a 

 file ; let it be round on one side, fiat on the other, and finely cut. By 

 keeping his trowel sharpened with this he will find digging done with com- 

 parative ease, less pupse will be destroyed, and afar greater amount of work 

 accomplished. The time taken in going from tree to tree should be utilised 

 for the sharpening process. I strongly recommend those who have as yet 

 neglected the use of a file, to start it at once. — J. Clakke ; 26, Carey 

 Street, Reading, Sept. 17, 1890. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — September 3rd, 1890. Mr. 

 Henry T. Stainton, F.R.S., in the chair. Mr. C. Fenn exhibited and re- 

 marked on specimens of Eiqrithecia satyrata, Eudorea ambigualis, and 

 Tortrix viburnana from Darlington. Mr. H. Goss exhibited, on behalf of 

 Mr. Martin Stanger Higgs, a remarkable variety of Melitcea aurinia 

 (artemis), taken a few years ago, in Gloucestershire, by Mr. Joseph Merrin. 

 The Rev. Dr. Walker communicated some observations on the Entomology 

 of Iceland, and gave an account of his recent travels in that island. He 

 stated that he had taken Bombus terrestris this year, for the first time, in 

 the north-west of Iceland, from which quarter of the island it had not been 

 recorded by Dr. Staudinger ; he also referred to the enormous numbers of 

 Ichneumonida3 and Diptera which he had noticed in the island. He further 

 stated that in 1889, in the months of June and July, Noctua conjl.ua was 

 the most abundant species of Lcpidoptora in Iceland ; but that this year, 

 in July and August, Crymodes exulis was the prevailing species, and that 

 Char ceas graminis and Coremia munitata also occurred in great numbers. 

 In reply to a question by Mr. Staiuton, Dr. Walker said that the (lowers 



