ENTOMOLOGY AT HAZELEIGH (eSSEX). 205 



never, in my experience, from elm. Sometimes they settle immediately 

 on a leaf, but more generally they fly straight oat from the wood 

 into the open fields, at a height of some three or four feet from the 

 ground and are then very easily capture:!. This pale golden species 

 is extremsly pretty anil I shall never forget the sight of it in such 

 unusual numbers. June 2nd anil June 5th were lusky days, the latter 

 being also marked by the capture in the same locality of Knstrohia 

 { = Acontia) luctuom, a species whose existense in this neighbourhood 

 I never even suspected. I was working among some long grass in the 

 corner of an uncultivated field chiefly for St/riclith as nialrae and 

 Nisoniah's ta'jca, when up got a black and white moth which I at first 

 took to be an extraordinarily large specimen of I'Jphippiphora eirsiana, 

 after a short flight it settled on a thick grass stem, whence I easily 

 netted it. I ha- 1 never before seen this species alive, and was therefore 

 almost more delighted by its capture than by the 21 L. sororcula I 

 oVtained during the next two hours. Butterflies have not been very 

 abundant so far, except, perhaps, S. nialrae, of which I obtained eggs 

 by sleeving a female out on bramble in the sun, although I have 

 repeated'y tried in vain in previous years. Cyaniris arniflm was 

 fairly common : I generally obtain it settled on Portugal laurels in my 

 own garden, bat 03casionally flying round ivy of which we have plenty. 

 Holly does not flourish on our heavy clay here, but three miles away, 

 at Danbury, C. aniiolas and holly are Ijoth common. With me it generally 

 oviposits on RhaJiimis fran<iula. N. ta/es and Brcnthis etiphrosyne 

 have certainly been much rarer than usual this year, and Chryaophanus 

 phlaea^ extremely rare. We get all the hair-streaks here except 

 Thecla pru:ii, but Callophn/i rubi and Zephi/nts hetulae are much more 

 rare thin formerly, although T. w-alhum is abundant in the larval state 

 on wych-elms. I can geiierally get 30 or 40 in an afternoon towards 

 the end of May, and reckon to get AldUnia (jilvaijo in some numbers, 

 at the same time. I find that worn females of T. w-alhum will lay freely 

 if sleeved out on elm in the sun. Zcpliiirm qiwrcm, although abundant 

 as imiginis, I never get very freely in the larval state. Nemeobius 

 lucina occurs in a wood about four miles from here, but is now so 

 uncommon that the imago is rarely seen. I generally get it in the Q^^ 

 state by collecting primrose leaves about the middle of June. The eggs 

 are laid on the under surface of the leaf, generally one on each leaf, 

 but I have found as many as five laid on difterent parts of the under- 

 side of the same leaf, and, in one instance, three laid together in a heap. 

 They hatch at the end of June, and are easily reared, being full-fed at 

 the end of July, when they turn to pupre and remain in this state till 

 the following May. As the result of an expedition on the afternoon 

 of June 14th I found thirteen eggs, and hope to pay another visit 

 to the locality shortly. In the same wood occurs that local and very 

 lovely Micro, Dasyccra {= (EcopJiora) ulicidla, of which I took the 

 first specimen this year on June 10th. It is by no means abundant. 



Of the earlier Geometers tbe best species we get about here is un- 

 doubtedly Aleucis pictaria. By dusking along mixed hedges containing 

 blackthorn one may get perhaps half-a-dozen a night, but by searching 

 low blackthorn hedges about an hour after dark a much larger number 

 may be obtained, often as many as two dozen ; but to get them really 

 fine is a diflerent matter, as it is an extremely delicate species. It is 

 not difficult to obtain eggs and rear the caterpillars, but the pupae 



